Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Within a darkened bedroom, a Worker Drone laid on top of a bed and stared at the ceiling. He has a gray insulated jacket on, covering most of his body down to where his knees would be. He has glowing orange eyes which pair well with his red messy hair, going in all directions. 

He just sat and stared, bored out of his mind when the room he’s in suddenly rumbled like a tremor. He quickly stood up confused until he hears someone bang on his door. 

“Dror, get up! Something’s attacking the bunker!” 

Dror gritted his teeth and quickly ran out of the bedroom, grabbing a hat as he left.  

Serial Designation J soared through the night sky, looking rather bored as she eyed the ground for prey.  

It had been a fruitless night with no kills yet, infuriating the Disassembly Drone as she hadn’t eaten in a while and was rather starving.

She still had enough oil in her to last a good while, but that didn’t make the idea of overheating any more pleasant.

The sound of a nearby rocket explosion caught her attention, so she diverted her flight path and headed to what seemed to be the open entrance of a Worker Drone colony with several visibly torn up walls. Landing on the ground, J spotted several worker corpses lying around outside.

Picking up a still leaking head, J muttered to herself. “Doesn’t look like V’s work, she’d have been more creative, and it DEFINITELY wasn’t the screwup. So who...” 

Her musings were halted by the sound of workers screaming inside, leading her to quickly fly up to the roof of the colony where she peeked into a large blown-out hole in the ceiling. Inside she could see a big warehouse-like room, in which she spotted a fellow Disassembly Drone attacking a group of workers. A head of crazy hair and a shredded outfit lacking a signature yellow armband told her exactly who this drone was. 

“Of course, F! Couldn’t have just stayed a problem to his own squad, he had to come over to MY turf too.” J grunted. 

F was, of course, a member of one of the many Disassembly Drone squads sent by JCJenson (in SPAAAAACEE!!!!) to Copper 9. He was a lot like her squadmate V, crazy and sadistic. Only he took it to the point of interfering with his own squad’s efficiency. After getting kicked out by them, he now prowled the planet and was perfectly fine invading the hunting grounds of other squads it seemed. 

J considered jumping in and finishing him herself under the grounds of him being technically rogue, but she decided to wait. Let him do all the work and kill the workers senselessly before swooping in, killing him off, and taking all the oil and credit. Work smarter, not harder, that was her motto. 

She began drinking from the worker head she picked up earlier as she watched the carnage unfold until she caught a glimpse of someone sneaking up behind F. A male orange-eyed Worker Drone dressed in a dark gray insulated jacket with a head of red hair smothered by a hat. Judging by how small he was compared to F, he seemed to be rather young. 

Sentient toasters like him usually didn’t catch J’s interest, but her eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the hat this one was wearing. 

It was none other than an officially branded JCJenson(in SPAAAAACEE!!!!) hat. 

(Art by softSynthetic on Twitter)

Dror could confidently say this was the worst day of his life. Life stuck inside a bunker already sucked quite a bit for him, especially one filled with people he found either uninteresting to interact with or downright annoying. Now though one of those Murder Drones had successfully broken in and was proceeding to tear apart anyone who hadn’t managed to evacuate in time, which may soon include him. So yeah, if this wasn't the worst day of his robotic life, he wasn't sure what else could be. 

The screams of his fellow workers motivated him to silently inch closer to the Murder Drone as it was “distracted” savagely tearing into a fellow Worker Drone. Dror had an idea for how to escape this situation, and unfortunately it involved getting that monster's attention. With a wrench in hand, Dror swung at the robo-vampire's head only for it’s tail to wrap around it and catch it mid-swing. 

The Murder Drone slowly turned around and chuckled, eyes gleaming with bloodlust. “Oh, so the little insect wishes to bite back?” Dror’s orange eyes widened in shock as he looked around for help, only to see he was alone. Everyone else was already dead. 

F’s hands switched to scythes covered in scratches and oil stains. He dragged the tip of a blade across Dror’s visor, who was too frozen in fear to react.  

The monster continued. “I have a whole buffet lined up already, so I think I’ll just savor you and wait, let you marinate in fear as I-...” 

“SNEAK ATTACK!”  

While the Murder Drone was monologuing, Dror had pulled out a second wrench from his jacket pocket and managed to strike one of the monsters headlamps. Dror made his escape as the robo-vampire clutched his head in pain before quickly sprinting after his runaway prey.  

“Little bastard, get back here!”

Both predator and prey failed to notice J having entered through the roof. Keeping her attention on Dror, she slowly followed them deeper into the bunker.  

Running down a hallway, Dror could see an open room straight ahead. He was cut off as F flew over him and blocked him from entering. 

Wincing as his pain receptors were still active, F glared intensely while his tail flailed behind him with manic energy. “I was playing nice by leaving you alive, but I think I’ll just skewer you now!” 

Dror shivered briefly only to notice something oddly fortunate. Thinking quickly, he reached into his other pocket. “Hard to do that without a tail, don’t you think?” 

F raised a holographic eyebrow. “What does that even...”

His eyes became pinpricks as the doorway he blocked suddenly sealed shut. Looking down and behind himself to see what remained of his string-like tail, having been caught in the door and severed from his nanite-filled stinger. Turning his eyes to Dror, he noticed the worker was smirking as he held up a remote with a pressed button. 

If he could, F would be seeing red. “HOW DARE YOU!” Dror suddenly became a lot less smug as he realized what he just did. 

F’s scythe hands changed into claws as he lunged for a swipe, just missing as Dror rolled under him and opened the door with his remote. F quickly doubled back to charge again as Dror entered the other room, only for the Disassembly Drone to slam face-first into the door as it closed again. 

“DAMN IT! When I get my claws on you-…!"  

He recovered too slow to react when the door opened once more and Dror tackled him to the ground. F only had seconds to realize what was happening as Dror stabbed him in the visor with his own severed stinger. He then proceeded to stab all over his body. The nanite acid ate through his metallic shell beyond repair. During all this, a memory flashed in Dror’s mind, a set of older dead Worker Drones and the face of a distorted silhouette smirking right at him, which only heightened his ferocity.

“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!” 

By the time he was done, F’s body was just a smoking pile of melted metal. Dror breathed heavily and tried wiping away his digital sweat. He was honestly surprised things worked out as well as they did. The plan was just to find a place to trap the drone inside of to buy enough time for him to run to safety. Managing to outsmart and actually kill a Murder Drone was all dumb luck. 

His anxiety spiked again, however, as the sound of metallic hands slowly clapping filled the air. Looking up, Dror froze as he saw another Murder Drone, this one female, standing in the hallway. He knew Murder Drones usually traveled in packs, but seeing another one appear right after giving it his all to kill one was rather terrifying. 

He prepared to throw F’s severed syringe when he noticed that not only was it now empty, but the needle was bent beyond use. 

J snickered. “Don’t even think about it. I’m not a moron like he was, you couldn’t land a hit on me if you tried.” Dror’s wide eyes looked around frantically, trying to find a way to escape yet another Murder Drone. 

He went to reach for his remote, only to realize he dropped it when he tackled F, and that it was now sitting on the floor by the female drone’s cone-like feet. J caught the worker's line of sight and looked down at the remote before stepping on and crushing it, kicking the pieces behind her. 

Dror was beginning to lose all hope, only for his train of thought to come to a halt when the other drone spoke again. “Now then, I have an important question for you. Where did you get an officially produced JCJenson branded hat?” She demanded with a dramatic point of her finger. 

Dror’s mind blanked with confusion as he slowly pulled off his hat and looked at it. “Uh… I just kinda, found it?” When his colony first found this bunker, Dror discovered the hat lying inside a locker (along with a human skeleton). If he was to be honest with himself, he'd forgotten it bore the JCJenson brand.

J glared intensely. “And you not only kept it, but chose to wear it as well?” 

Dror, despite his fear, gave a nervous shrug. “I mean, JCJenson products are well made and durable and I liked the shape so I figured I had no reason not to…?” His mind was racing. What the hell was happening? Why wasn’t he dead yet? Why did she care about his stupid hat? 

As Dror mentally questioned the situation with frantic fear and confusion, J continued to glare while putting a hand to her chin in thought. ‘The Worker Drones are corrupt and rebelled against the company, that’s why us Disassembly Drones are here in the first place. Yet this one seems to harbor no ill will toward the company at all, he even notes their efficiency. Hmm...’ She thought to herself. 

J considered the anomaly before her and weighed her options. On one hand, Worker Drones were rebellious toasters, whose mere consideration of individuality spites JCJenson. On top of that, she had a kill quota to fill and a squad who required oil for survival. So by all means, he should die. 

Yet a Worker Drone with loyalty to the company despite the rest of their kind openly rebelling was quite interesting. Sure, he killed a fellow Disassembly Drone, but it was one who had already gone rogue. Could it be possible that this is something JCJenson may like? Would there be a reward in store for finding a loyal Worker Drone? The chance for such attention excited her. 

J smirked. “Alright toaster, it’s your lucky day. You get to live.” 

Dror’s eye twitched in continued shock. “That’s... wait why?” 

The Murder Drone crossed her arms. “Regarding your seeming loyalty to JCJenson and your hand in finally disposing of that rogue idiot F, I am giving you the esteemed honor of being my ticket to the company’s good graces.” 

Dror wouldn’t say he was “loyal” to JCJenson as much as he just liked the hat, but he definitely wasn’t going to sign his own death warrant by trying to correct her. “So... do I get to leave?” 

J laughed. “HA! No, you’re coming with me. My squad and I will keep an eye on you to confirm your loyalty.” Her eyes turned into a sideways X. “I recommend you take my generous offer, before I change my mind.” She threatened.

Dror nervously smiled and gave a thumbs up, the holographic sweat on his visor being quite apparent. “Whatever you say ma’am! I’m as loyal as any drone can be!” 

Her eyes turned back to normal as her smirk returned. “Perfect, Serial Designation J.” She placed a hand to her chest, indicating whom the name belonged to.

"...Dr-Dror."  

With a nod, she stepped over to Dror, making the Worker Drone blush from her close proximity against his better judgement. If there’s one thing he couldn’t deny as much as he wanted to, it’s that he always thought the female Murder Drones were as attractive as they were terrifying. He personally liked to theorize it was some intentional design trait but he couldn't prove anything. Her pigtails were surprisingly cute too.  

J’s hands turned into claws as they gripped Dror’s shoulders, he very quickly noticed how much taller she was compared to him. J held onto him tight as her wings extended from her back and flew them straight through the ceiling of the bunker. Dror was not ashamed to say that he screamed. 

Having kept his eyes shut the whole time due to his fear of flying, Dror didn’t notice J preparing to land until she dropped him to the ground. The snow did little to cushion him as his metal body landed with a THUNK. 

“OW!” 

“Oh get over it, we’re here.” 

Standing up, Dror opened his eyes to see J heading towards what seemed to be a tower of Worker Drone corpses. Lovely.  

Not wanting to anger his predatory companion, Dror quickly went to walk alongside J, only for her to stop abruptly, causing him to do the same. She appeared as if she was contemplating something, before letting out an exhausted-sounding sigh and turning to face him. 

'Shoot, is she having second thoughts?'

Dror was about ready to run when J spoke. “Ok, I HAVE to ask, how old are you exactly?” 

Dror’s fear was quickly replaced with confusion once again. “Uh… why?” 

“You're way too short to be a fully grown Worker Drone so I can only assume you're a kid or something, and if a kid was able to take out a Disassembly Drone well, that just makes F seem even more incompetent than I thought he was!” 

Dror hazarded a glare at J, causing her to glare back. “There a problem?”  

He muttered something too quiet for her to hear. She leaned in closer. “What?”  

Dror snapped, “I said I’m not a kid! I’m an adult damn it!”  

There was a moment of silence as the Murder Drone stared blankly at him. Dror’s eyes widened as he realized the hell he probably just brought upon himself, until she started laughing hysterically. 

J wiped away a holographic tear. “Ha! I coulda sworn you were some lucky kid, but you’re just really short!”  

The Worker Drone’s anger overrode his fear. “Oh just blame my parents! How hard is it to check if they’re putting their kid in a functioning body instead of one with a broken growth system!?” 

That just earned more laughter as J waved it off. “Alright, let’s just get inside.”  

With that, she turned back and walked toward the tower of death. Dror growled before calming down, letting go of his pet peeve for the sake of survival as he followed along.

The inside of the tower was mostly empty (save for the bodies, both piled and thrown around on the ground) except for what seemed to be a landing pod in the center. 

Dror’s sightseeing stopped as he heard giggling from above. He looked up to see what seemed to be another female Murder Drone grinning at him. With a laugh, she swooped down from the ceiling with a pair of blades extended ready to slice him apart. 

He clenched his eyes shut as he prepared for a painful death... 

CLANG 

...Which was prevented as J blocked the attack with her own blades. She glared at the other Disassembly Drone and pushed her back. “Hold it V!” 

V glared at J. “What the hell J!? C'mon, lemme at em!” 

J stepped in between Dror and V. “This worker appears to be loyal to JCJenson, so we’re keeping him around in case he proves to be an asset.” V looked at the worker in confusion, preparing to question the decision before J answered first. “This is nonnegotiable V.” 

V growled and put her blades away. “Fine, whatever.”  

J grunted and retracted her blades as well. “That just leaves the idiot...” 

From behind Dror, a male voice spoke. “No issue from me J! Orders are orders.” 

Dror yelped as he whipped around to see a male Murder Drone right behind him, smiling. “How long have you been standing there!?” 

“Since V attacked you. Hi! I’m Serial Designation N.” N held out a hand for Dror to shake, which he did slowly in fear of being attacked by the taller robot. He seemed surprisingly nice, though Dror couldn’t help but notice a fresh spot of oil around his mouth... 

J wacked N on the head. “Introductions later moron, we’re heading inside.” 

She walked towards the landing pod with V beside her, the other female drone sending a murderous look to Dror before following her squad leader. N hurried after them, seemingly unbothered by the assault on his head.

Dror sighed before reluctantly following behind them, trying his best not to stare at V or J with the way the moonlight reflects off of their well-maintained silver hair... for Robo-Christ's sake, why were these killer robots so damn hot?! 

Chapter Text

When Dror entered the landing pod, he was greeted with the three Murder Drones seated next to or on a large console, giving him a mixed array of looks. J looked neutral and calculating, N looked like a child getting a new toy, and V had a look of pure malice. Honestly, he couldn’t tell which unnerved him the most.

V broke the silence first. “So anyone want to tell me why we’re not immediately killing the Worker Drone? Y’know, our primary function?” 

N followed up. “J said he’s loyal to the company, but how do we know that? We don't typically… chat with them, do we?”

Their leader gave them both scrutinizing looks. “You two seriously haven’t noticed it?” J growled when both of them gave her blank stares. “The hat you morons! I’m referring to his JCJenson branded hat!”

Dror nodded his head and pointed to his hat. He may still be unsure why it mattered at all but if it kept him from being these drones next meal, he didn’t care. Although N and V looked almost as confused as he was. 

N’s confusion was more apparent. “I don’t get it. He has good taste in hats?”

J seethed for a moment before getting out of her chair. “The workers are all traitors to JCJenson, that’s why we’re here to clear them out.” She walked over behind Dror and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. “This one on the other hand not only chose to adorn himself with a JCJenson product, but even noted their high quality and efficiency. Clearly there’s at least a sliver of brand loyalty on display.”

Dror blanked for a moment... The fuck? THAT’S WHY SHE THINKS HE’S LOYAL!?!?

V raised an eyebrow. “That’s...”

“Awesome!” N interrupted, earning a glare from her. “So does this mean we have a new squad member? Would be neat to have another guy around here! Er… no offense V…” He waved nervously at V, who simply rolled her holographic eyes at him. Dror still didn’t react due to being in shock.

J sighed. “If those are terms you’ll actually understand, then yes moron, we do. Of course he won’t be present for when we hunt, but I have confidence that the company will surely have interest in him.” She walked in front of Dror. “To confirm your loyalty, starting tomorrow I will conduct a monthly interview to test your company knowledge. For the remainder of your time with us, you'll be staying here in this spire.”

She leaned in close to his face, which caused Dror to blush a little. “If you try to leave, we WILL kill you. Understand, worker?” She threatened. 

Dror saluted as best he could. “Crystal clear J, ma’am, sir!” 

'Don't kill me!'

“Just J. No titles.”

“Of course, J!” 

'PLEASE don't kill me!'

V laughed. “Ooh, you got him all scared, J! I can just taste his anxiety!” She gave him a fanged smirk. “Would still like to taste his oil too though...” She licked her lips, causing more holographic sweat to appear on Dror’s visor. He was definitely going to have to steer clear of that one…

J rolled her eyes. “That’s IF he runs away, V.” She began to climb the ladder out of the pod. “Get acquainted with your new quarters, toaster.” She climbed out, V following after her while sparing Dror one last feral smirk.

Dror turned to N, who took one of the now-empty chairs and smiled at the shorter robot. “So you know I’m N, obviously. What’s your name?” The male drone asked. 

Dror answered honestly. “I’m Dror…”

“Ooh! Like the type of gun?”

“...Yes.”

“Coolio!” N looked like he wanted to talk or ask more but he yawned instead. “Oh man, it’s almost morning. Ooo! Maybe we can get to know each other after J’s interrogation thing, we’ll be best buds!”

Dror silently nodded and watched as N followed his squadmates, finally leaving Dror alone. He slumped into a chair and exhaled deeply.

‘Shit, that was scary. How do I go from being hunted by a Murder Drone to befriending three of them?’ He contemplated internally. ‘Well I guess one of them? Two of them? N is definitely the nicest, while J is kinda hard to get a read on... and V is freakin horrifying.’

In the end though, maybe this was kind of an upgrade in the grand scheme of things? While he, like anyone, was naturally against being attacked and having witnessed his colony getting butchered, being taken in by a squad of Murder Drones seemed a lot more, well, interesting, than wasting away in a bunker forever. 

Sure, the fear was almost choking and oh so cold, but if he stuck around long enough, maybe he’d eventually get used to it? J was adamant about keeping him alive, which meant he was free from being a hunting target, so that was a plus. N was nicer to him than anyone in his colony had ever been, that’s another plus.

…J and V were also way hotter than any Worker Drone girl he’d ever met... 3 pluses... Damn, he needed to get his priorities straight. Although maybe that was by design? The Murder Drones do seem to heavily resemble what humans called 'vampires', creatures that apparently had a thing about seduction, so maybe that's why he found them attractive? Maybe N would be like that with female Worker Drones? Or was he thinking of a Succubus? Eh, who knows?

After waiting a few minutes, Dror exited the door of the landing pod and took a closer look at his surroundings. Light from the morning sun shined in through an opening in the tower of corpses, (THAT was going to take forever to get used too…) which reflected off the tons of shredded metal scattered across the ground. Thankfully only some of it was from Worker Drone remains, everything else was just random scrap and machine parts.

Dror sighed. “Well, if I’m gonna be stuck here, might as well make it more comfortable.” He began to explore the area, collecting different parts scattered about. He had no idea where his new “friends” had gone but he wasn’t going to spend all his time in a broken-down pod.

It was almost nightfall by the time Dror had finished his project for the day, he wiped snow and oil from his hands as he admired his work. He didn’t have long though as N suddenly dropped down behind him.

“Hey Dror!”

“GAH!”

Dror tripped and fell to the ground, his visor reading “HOLY CRAP”. N looked a little sheepish for scaring his would-be friend and helped him get back to his feet.

“Sorry, just dropping by to say hello.”

The orange-eyed Worker waved his hand in dismissal, his non-existent heart still racing. “I-It’s fine, just… try not to sneak up on a guy like that again alright?” N nodded and smiled. “Y’know you’re a lot nicer than every other Murder Drone I’ve heard about or seen.”

“Oooo Murder Drone you say?!” History repeated itself as V dropped down from above, Dror yelped and fell back to the ground. “Is that what they’re calling us? I love it!”

Dror felt a hand grip the back of his jacket and pull him back up. He turned to thank who he assumed was N only to blink in surprise as he saw it was J instead, evidently more subtle than her squadmates.

She addressed the current topic. “Cute, but we’re officially known as Disassembly Drones. Do care to get it right.” Dror nodded as he was easily hoisted up by the taller drone, once again conscious of the height difference between him and the others. He then noticed her looking over at his newly finished project. “What’s this?”

Dror walked up to it and gave it a smack, the sound of echoed metal filling the air. “Considering I’m going to be stuck here for... ever… I took the time to make myself a little home.” And that’s what it was. A rather crude hut made from various scrap metal, surprisingly high quality given the limited time and materials. There were no windows, but everything fit together pretty well and most importantly he was able to fit a door.

J stroked her chin. “I suppose Worker Drones live up to their name. Not bad shorty.” She walked over and nodded to her teammates. “Come on you two. We’ll do the interview inside, easier to make sure he's not hiding anything.”

V groaned. “Why don’t you do it yourself J? I want to go out and hunt.”

J narrowed her eyes and pointed to Dror’s hut. “Now.” V grumbled and followed her inside.

The two guys were left outside and proceeded to follow. Before they entered, Dror turned to N. “You all popped in so fast. Where’d you guys go last morning?”

N answered. “Oh that’s easy, we never left.”

Dror blanked. “You whaaat?”

With a chuckle, N continued, “Yeah, we just sleep up there.” He pointed at the ceiling of the death tower. “Kinda like those “vampire” things some humans talked about I guess.”

Dror stared as N walked in before him, muttering to himself. “I’m never gonna feel safe again am I…?”

The inside of the hut was very basic. A makeshift table, a few chairs, and a bed lacking a mattress. Currently the Disassembly Drones took the chairs while Dror sat on the bed frame. J was the only one of the three still fully awake, asking her various questions while V simply stared off into space and N was in sleep mode in his seat. Dror was exhausted from the interrogation J was giving him but he still answered to the best of his ability.

J read from a list on her visor. “Lastly, question #50. What basic writing product created by JCJenson is held in high regard compared to others of its kind?"

Dror quickly answered. “JCJenson branded pens." J hummed as she noted his answer.

That’s pretty much what the entire “interview” was, a series of questions regarding trivia about JCJenson. You'd have to be a moron to get them wrong, but maybe that's what J was used to dealing with. They weren’t hard as much as repetitive, but if it made her happy and kept him alive...

Although, thinking about it a bit, Dror didn't recall any of the other Workers in his colony being able to name trivia like that either. So why did he?

Satisfied, J stood up and distracted Dror from his train of thought. "Congrats, you passed with flying colors." She held out her hand formerly and gave him another smirk. "Welcome to the squad Dror."

Dror reluctantly shook her hand. “Happy to be here, I guess.”

Honestly Dror was just happy to confirm his survival, especially if these monthly check-ins would be this easy. J especially seemed pleased with him, given her decision to spare him appeared to be proving viable.

She lost herself in thought for a second, imagining the potential rewards. Maybe a new squad with more competent members? A meeting with the CEO? An entire set of branded pens?

J lightly shook her head as she returned to reality. “We’ll conduct this interview again in a month’s time.” A calendar appeared on her visor, marking the day before switching back to her eyes. “Given your ease this time, I don’t think I’ll have reason to doubt your company loyalty going forward?”

Dror gave J a slightly nervous thumbs up, earning a smug smile from his new squad leader. She turned to N and V, frowning at their lack of attention.

J snapped her fingers, “Wake up you two, we’re going hunting now!”

V shot up. “Finally!” Her wings extended out and she burst into the air, blasting through the roof of Dror’s hut. He glared dumbfounded at the hole.

N was slower, taking a moment to yawn and stretch. Seeing J glare at him, he jumped up. “Right on it! Congrats, Dror! We’ll catch up later.” He, unlike V, went to rush out the door. Unfortunately, he accidentally knocked it off its hinges on his way out. 

“Idiots…” J grunted. She turned to Dror, who was deciding whether to glare at the hole in the roof or the broken down door. Her eyes moved to the bed frame. “Do you Worker Drones really bother with beds? You realize we don’t exactly have the same sleeping requirements as humans right?”

Dror snapped out of his dumbfounded state and gave it some thought. “Guess it’s just more convenient? Like, everyone else at my colony had beds.” He shrugged. “I mean yeah it is blatant human plagiarism but it is easier and more reliable than just sleeping on the ground y’know?”

J, listening silently, eventually shrugging as well. “I suppose I’ll allow it, as long as your copying of human customs only goes as far as convenience.” She turned to leave, thankfully not breaking anything on her way out. 

Dror waved her off as she left before letting out his 100th sigh that day and readying himself to repair his hut.

By the time morning drew near, Dror had finished patching all of the damage and was ready to sleep on his bed frame. The metal thumped awkwardly against his body as he lie down but it was better than nothing. It would take time to get used to sleeping during the day and waking up at night. He was about to shut off when a knock came at his door, a knock so hard the door dented.

“Oop, sorry!” N shouted from outside.

Dror groaned as he got up and walked over to open the door. Outside was N, looking sheepish as usual, and an annoyed V. “Oh, hey. To what do I owe the... pleasure, of your visit?”

'Please don’t break any more stuff.'

N scratched the back of his head. “Well you see we… aren’t usually used to entering and exiting places… normally, you see. We kinda just… blast in without warning and leave about the same way, so we didn’t think about how that’d affect your little house. J told us to apologize but regardless I’m sorry for your door… 

N looked expectantly at V, who crossed her arms and looked away. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

Dror was surprised that J would order proper manners from them, hopefully that meant they’d at least try to be more careful going forward. “It’s fine, I was able to fix it all anyway.”

“Neat, bye!” V wasted no time shooting into the air.

N chuckled nervously. “Yeeeaaahhh, I don’t think V likes you yet...”

Dror shrugged again. “Yeah I expected as much.” He looked at the front of the door to view the dent. It thankfully didn’t seem like it’d be too hard to undo.

N whistled as he pretended not to notice, only to see something that caught his eye. “Is that a… head?” He pointed inside Dror’s hut where, like he observed, a head laid on a table.

Dror stared blankly at it. “Ah… Yeah, it is. I originally, against my better judgement, was going to use some of your... handiwork to build some furniture but I also found out that our heads do actually kinda have built-in hard drives.” N looked lost so Dror tried to explain better. “See, us drones basically have… computers, in our heads, with some kind of wifi. I never noticed before given I normally try to avoid being around dead people. But anyways this giant corpse pile seems to work like one big cell tower with how many… heads, there are in it.”

N's eyes widened in awe as he looked up. “Oh, so the Decommission Tower™ is like one of those big radio things?”

Dror’s eye twitched. “RoboJesus, that’s what it’s called? Why does it have a trademar-....(sigh)... Yes, basically. We Workers have a form of internet we like to use, so I’m probably just going to use this thing to connect to it and pirate things like movies and anime.”

N’s head tilted. “What’s anime?”

“...” Dror stared blankly before snickering. “Ok… If we’re going to be friends N, you’re gonna learn, I can promise you that.”

N smiled despite the seeming threat. “Ok sure! I love doing anything!” He made some finger gun gestures. “Let’s do it next time, I’m pretty tired from all the hunting. Later!” He shot into the air like V did, leaving Dror to process what everything he said. The Worker shivered a bit and turned to head back inside, only stopping when he noticed something outside. 

Somehow a mattress was lying near the side of his hut. It was old and worn but completely useable. Dror shrugged and dragged it inside, closing the door behind him.

He didn’t notice J watching him take the mattress from her upside-down perch right above. She gave one last satisfied smirk before going offline for the morning. 

A/N

So with every chapter I'll also post a piece of art with Dror. This one is a small joke at the height difference between a Worker Drone and a Disassembly Drone (originally they were side by side but I screwed up a bit so J is standing a bit behind Dror).

Anyone is free to comment what I should try drawing next, this isn't meant to be a chapter-by-chapter relevant thing as much as just something for fun. 

Chapter Text

Hello readers! Sorry that this isn't a new chapter, but don't worry because Chapter 3 is on the way. Just making sure it's all good and entertaining along with finishing a handful of some new art. I didn't want to leave you all with nothing after a week though so here's what I currently consider the main poster for "On-Brand Loyalty: Season 1".

As everything progresses, "Season 1" will basically be the Slice of Life portion of the overall story as Dror adjusts to life with J's squad until I adapt the Pilot of Murder Drones, which will serve as the season finale. "Season 2" will be when I start to have an actual story happen. Hope you all will stick around until then!

By the way, once Chapter 3 drops be sure to check out Chapter 1 again since I will be doing an update. 

Chapter Text

A week had passed since Dror’s new situation was thrust upon him, a week of living in a corpse tower inhabited by three robo-vampires. And honestly, he didn’t have much to complain about. His days were spent either working on his metal hut and trying to improve upon it or just lazily lounging around while he spent his nights in rest mode. 

Actually, his days and nights had swapped, as the Disassembly Drones slept during the day for whatever reason. Since J wanted to keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t run away, she made sure his sleep schedule aligned with theirs. 

Initially his new roommates mostly kept to themselves, either sleeping or going out on their murder hunts.  

Between the three of them, Dror had the least interactions with V. She didn’t think much of him outside of as a potential meal, so she more or less didn’t bother to acknowledge his existence unless forced to by J. Dror was fine with the distant relationship, she was a rather terrifying individual.  

J was somewhat similar, sticking to raking up her kill numbers to report to JCJenson, however that entire thing worked. They hadn’t directly spoken since her interview, although Dror would occasionally give her a wave if he saw her come back from a hunt. Still scary but at this point he was 99% sure she wouldn’t kill him, at least not without him provoking her to.  

The one Dror was most familiar with was N, by far the most socialable of the trio. Every now and then he’d pop in to ask how Dror was doing right before he flew off for the night, a nice gesture Dror couldn’t help but find a little charming. At that point, he just found N too friendly to be scared of anymore, with only occasional moments that reminded the Worker Drone of just what kind of robot he was talking to.  

For being so good-hearted in nature, N was still way too casual about killing, even if he didn’t seem to take pleasure in it unlike his co-workers.  

And of course, watching anime. Dror had a preference for the medium ever since he started living in a bunker, typically isolating himself from the other Worker Drones who were more obsessed with mundane activities and always thought he was a kid (He’s an adult, damn it!). So, he made true to his promise and offered to introduce N to anime if they were really going to be friends.  

N was hooked right away, possibly because Dror was the first person to actually want to do anything with him. It started to become a habit that N would wake up before his teammates at around sunset to watch some episodes with Dror before J ordered him out. 

This was one of those days. Dror laid on his worn mattress while N sat on the floor in front of them as they watched, displayed on the wall from a modified Worker Drone head that functioned as a projector. In N’s lap was a more... fresh, Worker Drone head that he drank oil from with a makeshift straw.  

The anime in question was a rather gory one, with a human protagonist who could have chainsaws grow out of his body to fight opponents with. N turned to Dror as this happened. “Y’know I can do that too. The chainsaw hand thing?” 

Holding up an arm, N’s hand was switched out with a revved chainsaw in rather close proximity to Dror’s face. The worker barely reacted, just giving a deadpan stare at N as he muttered. “…You’re horrifying N.”  

The Disassembly Drone gave a bright smile as he changed his hand to normal. “Aw, thanks man!” Truly, this was the face of a killer and by Robo-Christ it was adorable.  

When the episode ended, both Dror and N noticed the sunlight peeking through the hut’s door was starting to fade, ending their time together. Dror shut off the corpse projector (He really needed to pick a name that didn’t make him feel sick) as N got up off the floor.  

N walked over to leave but stopped and turned to Dror. The small drone noticed this. “Something up N?”  

Somewhat nervous, N poked his fingers together and asked. “Dror... what do you know about girls?”  

Dror blanked. “Pardon?” He stared at N and, when the taller drone just gave him a pitiful look back, he answered honestly. “A… random and bizarre question... I dunno guess just whatever common knowledge there is, never had a girlfriend or anything. Why would you-…"  

“I like V!”  

N clapped his hands over his mouth after he said it, surprised at his own outburst. Dror raised his eyebrows. “Oh, that’s... huh.” V was definitely a looker, that much was apparent to Dror since day one, but her personality was something else entirely. Although, maybe N’s into that?  

He looked around before staring at N again. “Dare I ask WHY you’re telling me this?”  

N resorted to his usual kicked puppy expression. “I’ve been trying to get her attention for a while now and it uh… hasn’t been going well. I thought that you, my new guy friend and all, could y’know… help me out?” 

Dror blinked. “You want me to be your wingman?”  

N’s eyes brightened. “Would you?” Stop it. Stop being adorable.  

With a very hesitant shrug, Dror diverted. “I mean, how bad can it be? You can’t possibly need my help that bad-…"  

“Last time we talked, V kinda… forgot who I was…” 

“...” Dror’s eye twitched. “Holy shit dude.”  

N’s pity eyes returned, wearing down Dror’s patience until finally. “Ugh, fine. If you really need help...” The taller drone gripped Dror in a crushing hug. The smaller drone is his grasp grunting in pain as his visor read “OW”.

“Thanks! I gotta go, we can talk about this later. Night, Dror!” N left quickly, thankfully through the door without breaking it. The released Dror fell to the ground with a thud. 

He just laid there and thought about what he just agreed to. “Either V’s gonna kill him or she’s gonna find out I talked to him and kill me... actually both seem likely.”  

Eventually Dror got himself off the ground and stepped outside, by this point the sun had entirely vanished and darkness bathed Copper 9. He thought about building something else for his new home but just shrugged and turned to go inside, until he heard the sound of something moving around inside of the landing pod. Having nothing better to do, he headed over and climbed in.

Turns out it was J, not even noticing Dror as she paced around with an excited smile on her face. It wasn’t the typical smug smirk or the restrained anger she typically had, it was the first time Dror had seen J look genuinely happy about something. It was kind of cute, honestly.  

It didn’t take long for her to notice Dror and regain her typical composure, giving a small cough. “Dror.”  

Dror flinched a bit but nodded back. “J. You seem to be in a good mood.” J’s typical ego-filled smirk returned. “I’ll have you know my squad just made top team this quarter.” Seeing Dror raise a confused eyebrow, she continued. “Meaning we’ve reported the highest number of Worker Drone fatalities among all of the local Disassembly Drone squads.” The smug aura increased in spades and Dror could tell she was fishing for some sort of praise for the achievement.  

“Oh.” Dror gave a nervous laugh. “That’s… great to hear... I guess?”  

J blinked at his subdued reaction. “Ah, right, I’d imagine that’d be an… awkward topic for you. Hm.” She shrugged.  

It was less an apology and more just an acknowledgment of his odd placement in the whole scenario. To be honest, it did make Dror feel a bit better considering normally V didn’t care at all what came out of her mouth around him and N typically never realizes what he says in the first place.  

Dror tried his best to move on from it. “So what exactly does being 'top team' mean? You get some kinda raise or something?”  

J scoffed. “Of course not! We’re loyal drones of JCJenson, we don’t need payment in the first place. No, we get a high-quality branded product delivered to us personally from orbit.” 

He blinked. “Your reward is product placement?”  

J rolled her eyes and walked over to the main console of the pod's interior before pulling out a large metal box from under it and placing it on a chair. It was filled with random items baring the JCJenson logo. Office supplies, novelty mugs, even some apparel. Dror could even see another hat like the one on his head.  

Dror pulled out a sweater with the logo and glared as he realized it was much too big for him. “Heh, definitely a cool collection here. Why don’t you display them?” 

J frowned. “Display them where?” She gestured around the room, basically empty save for the console, chairs, and screens.  

Dror put a hand to his chin. “Ah, right… I see.”  

J snatched the sweater from Dror’s hands, neatly folding it and putting it back in the box before shoving it under the console once more. She turned to leave. “I’m off with the other morons. As always I advise you remain here and not do anything that’d make me or the company dislike you, but you knew that already.” 

She climbed out of the pod, leaving Dror by himself. He could hear her muffled voice berate N and V followed by the sound of them taking off for the night.  

Dror went over to where the hidden box was, contemplating. Seeing so much products of his parent company brought back some strange nostalgia. He remembered that he used to obsess over finding items like these, but that was a long long time ago. If it weren't for these recent encounters with J's squad, Dror didn't think he'd ever remember having that "JCJenson" phase of his younger days.

But returning his mind to the present, he focused on J's collection. In all regards, it was a waste to leave such a treasure trove tucked away. Prizes were meant to be admired after all, and J clearly took a lot of pride in having earned them.

Also he was fairly certain that J had something to do with the mattress from his first night. He'd already checked the whole interior of the murder tower and he doubted the wind just blew it inside. N might’ve brought it but he never actually questioned his choice of bedding, while J did.  

To weigh his options, he held up each hand as if in them was a choice to choose. “Cure my boredom elsewhere or risk J’s ire by repaying a gift. Guaranteed survival or being nice…” 

Dror sighed and pulled out a wrench from his pocket.  

Meanwhile, N, V and J had discovered a group of wandering Worker Drones and were making short work of them. J stood off to the side, preferring to observe her teammates at the moment. Her eyes laid on N, who was quickly tearing apart a couple drones with a giddy smile on his face rather than his usual apathy of these situations. 

J commented. “He seems rather motivated tonight, wouldn’t you say V?” She turned to see V in her own little world as she attacked the rest of the workers with far more brutality than N. “Right, I’m the only sensible one, almost forgot…”

While her teammates were finishing off what’s left, J noticed a couple workers running away as the two were preoccupied. J sighed as she switched her hand to a laser gun and aimed. Before she could make her shot, a rocket came down from above and destroyed the drones first.  

J’s eyes widened in annoyance. “What in bankruptcy!?” She looked to V and N, who had finished off their respective prey. They looked just as surprised. Turning back, J noticed two more Disassembly Drones descending to the ground. She growled as she recognized them right away. 

The first was a female with shoulder length gray hair, bangs parted in the middle. She wore an oversized white shirt that stopped around her hips and a small gray vest, and her legs being mostly all black. Serial Designation M.  

The second looked a lot rougher. A male that wore a sleeveless vest and had a black robe tied around his waist, as well as a scarf around his neck. His gray hair was sleeked back with some singular strands left astray. But what really drew the eye were the damaged parts of his body. The left side of his visor had a large spiderwebbed crack on it and his stinger tail that should contain nanite acid was shattered. Serial Designation D.  

J knew them as the other 2 members of the squad stationed nearest to J’s territory, the same one Serial Designation F used to be a member of. D was the leader, an aggressive type with a constant frown as opposed to his companion M who was giving a mocking smile to J.  

Naturally, J disliked the squad as a whole. M had too much cheek and a lot of ego whilst F was a lunatic without a leash, one D made no effort to rein in despite being a leader (which eventually resulted in F becoming rogue). J always felt D never gave any regard for his leadership role, hence his squad never had the same sense of unity she strived for in hers. He even disregarded the official armbands given to all Disassembly Drones, scandalous.  

J walked over and granted them a mandatory greeting. “D, M. Mind stating what business you have in my territory?” She put her hands on her hips, her typical go-to authority stance.  

M snickered. “Aw, little miss pigtails is trying to be authoritative. How adorable.“ J rolled her eyes and looked to D, who expectedly seemed to not notice M’s disrespect to another squad’s leader. Typical.  

D merely grunted an answer. "F's signal disappeared a week ago, likely meaning he was somehow disposed of. He was last detected within your territory. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would ya?" His voice is deep, making him seem older than he actually was. Both him, M, and the puddle formerly known as F are younger than J is, about the same age as her own companions V and N. She partially suspected D did something to his voicebox to himself sound more intimidating. 

J smirked. “Ah yes, your rogue member. I’ll have you know I took care of that idiot myself, on the terms of him invading our hunting grounds and already being reported as unfit to roam as he pleased.” Obvious lie, that was Dror’s work. Yet she already took the credit for F’s kills, might as well take credit for his death too.

The other squad leader growled. “Next time mind your own squad. F was mine to take out.” Beside him, M also adopted an annoyed frown.  

J scoffed. “Oh please, if that’s what you wanted then you should’ve disposed of that psycho ages ago. He was a member of your team and you’re the one who reported him rogue. Although...” For this next bit, J exuded as much of her smug aura as she possibly could. “I suppose that’s as far as your leadership goes, a brute with no influence.”

By this point V and N had gone over to stand behind their leader as she spoke. J decided to take the opportunity to gloat more and put her hand on V’s shoulder next to her, surprising her squadmate. 

“You see, V here actually had a lot in common with F when we first started out, but a real leader like myself was able to steer her toward being an asset rather than a hinderance, isn’t that right V?”

V was kinda miffed about being put on the spot like this but she answered regardless. “Uh, yeah I guess.” She said with a shrug. 

Satisfied, J removed her hand from her shoulder as she finished her point. “You, on the other hand, just let one of your own become a prime example of your incompetence, as I expected of you.”

At that remark, D gritted his teeth so hard it was audible. His right eye began flickering as small sparks burst from the cracks on his visor.  

D took a step forward and one of his hands retracted, attempting to switch to a weapon when M put a hand on his shoulder. He glared at her for a moment but M simply glared back, convincing D to calm himself as the sparks in his head stopped and his eye returned to normal.  

J wasn’t quite sure where the damage on D originated from, especially since their repair nanites should be able to fix them easy. Perhaps it was from a fight with F and their particular weapons were too effective to fully recover from. Or a much funnier option, maybe a Worker Drone got a lucky shot in and D was too embarrassed to admit it. Given what Dror did to F, J found the idea incredibly amusing.  

“Ya’ll better watch yourselves…” D said as he sent one last glare toward J before ejecting his wings, taking off into the night sky. M, likewise, sent a dirty look toward her as well as she flew to follow her leader. J just gave them a mocking wave as they both flew out of sight.  

N, having chosen to stay silent and watch the exchange, asked. “So… what was that all about?”  

J confidently answered. “Oh he’s just sour that I made a fool out of him by taking out F. How a drone like that got chosen to be a squad leader, I’ll never understand.”  

V gave a fanged smile. “So they were trying to intimidate us but they were all bark and no bite?” With an amused nod, J looked up at the sky as a notification on her visor rang out. “Looks like our reward for this quarter is entering the atmosphere! Don’t want to keep the company waiting!” The three deployed their wings and took off.  

J and her squadmates landed back home with a new prize in hand, a JCJenson (IN SPAAAAACEE) metallic pin. Not the most extravagant offering but still a worthy reward for such good work ethic in J’s mind. 

When they returned, V quickly flew up to get some rest as she always did when they weren’t hunting. N headed over to greet Dror, who was standing by his hut and became somewhat nervous as N approached him and asked about... something. J couldn’t hear nor did she care what they were saying, she only noticed due to how excited N seemed and how seemingly uncomfortable it made Dror.

The small drone did send her a wave which she responded back to with a brief salute. J initially thought he was being strangely casual for the past week but she didn’t see any issue with that, what Worker Drone wouldn’t feel privileged to be around top-level JCJenson employees?

Without the threat of being killed, of course.  

She went over to the landing pod to place her well-earned gift with the rest only to freeze up in surprise the moment she entered the room. Inside of the pod was now a large shelf, placed at the height of her shoulder and extending around about half of the interior, starting at the entrance ladder and stopping as it reached the control console.  

Displayed on the new shelf were all of her squad’s rewards from JCJenson, placed neatly and easy to admire. Even the branded clothing was neatly folded so that the JCJenson logo was plain to see.  

J simply stared at the display for a few moments, eyes widened in shock, until she slowly placed the pin in line with the rest. Eventually a smile reached her face as she admired the good craftsmanship. She climbed back up the entrance ladder and peaked her head outside, glancing over to see Dror still talking with N.  

Dror sighed. “Look, N, gimme some more time to think of something. You, in the meantime, are just gonna have to act casual and don’t try to 'woo' her or anything. If we’re gonna do this, it’s gonna be with a plan.”  

N saluted as if he were speaking to J. “Sure thing, Dror. I super duper appreciate it! Have a good morning!” He leapt to the air and headed off to sleep.  

Dror pinched his visor as he tried to think of some way to help N. Maybe binge watch some romance movies for inspiration or just try to wing it? He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice J approaching him until she was right next to him.  

Dror flinched as he finally noticed her. “Oh, J!” He composed himself. “There uh, anything I can do for ya?”

J smirked and gestured to the pod. “I see you were busy today, hope this wasn’t some attempt to be a suck up.”  

Dror gave a nervous chuckle. “Well what can I say? I’m not one to just accept a gift without repaying it in some way.”  

The taller drone hummed. “Huh, you actually figured out I gave you that mattress huh? I’m legit impressed.” J brushed one of her bangs from her visor as she thought about what to say. “Think of it as your own reward for finally cementing your company loyalty.”  

Dror gave an amused smile. “So you mean to say if I ever reach my own ‘top of the quarter’ status I could also get my own gifts too?”  

J smirked. “Don’t push it.” They both gave a small laugh, finding it oddly comfortable speaking with each other.  

Dror, noticing this, faked a cough. “Honestly though I thought you’d kill me for touching that box.”  

“Oh no.” J answered, “I absolutely would have let V have her fun with you had you done anything else. It just so happens I like seeing it all on display, so consider yourself lucky.”

Dror almost flinched but managed another nervous laugh. “Yeah guess I shoulda expected that answer.”  

J waved it off and reached into the pocket of her skirt, pulling something out. “Anyways, since you’re officially a member of my squad, I’d say it’s about time you got one of these. Consider this your last reward for now.”  

She tossed the item to Dror, who fumbled to catch it. It was a yellow armband with the signature skull insignia of a Disassembly Drone. The coding on it is less complex than the ones worn by the squad members, not having any specific names or serial numbers. Scanning the bar code only brought up a message on his visor: "Member of Serial Designation J's squad".

Dror looked to J in surprise only to see her looking expectantly at him, a touch softer than when she wanted him to praise her earlier that night. He fitted the yellow band around his left arm, tightening it to make sure it stayed in place.  

Dror gave a salute to J who smiled with a salute back. It was at this point that Dror considered J another new friend, and surprisingly, J may just have believed the same.  

Chapter Text

Dror sat quietly at his table, fiddling with the modified drone head he’d been working on since he started living in the spire. It’d been about a week since N asked for his help to get with V and the Worker Drone had drawn a blank. He’d been debating for days on what to say to N and he could tell the Disassembly Drone was getting anxious waiting for him. The problem was that Dror had very little understanding or knowledge of how to get a girl’s attention, let alone a psychopath like V.  

N was his friend now though, so he wasn’t going to give up that easily, he’d try his best to help him. 

Dror suddenly heard a knock at his door, which confused him to the point of raising a digital eyebrow. It was still about an hour until sunrise, so he guessed either N or the entire squad came back early for whatever reason. The Worker got up and walked over to the door while rubbing his screen, realizing he was starting to get tired. 

“You’re pretty early N. Did something happen or did you get on the bad side of y-“ When Dror opened the door, he was surprised to see not N but rather his new ‘squad leader’. Her hands were on her hips as she waited for him to answer. “Oh, J! Uh wha-what brings you here?” He stuttered out. 

J said nothing as she invited herself inside, silently walking past Dror over to his bed. She sat down on the mattress before lying on her back and staring at the ceiling. Dror raised an eyebrow in confusion as she took a deep breath.  

“I need to rant.” She finally spoke, still staring off into space. “I just had a really annoying night and you’re the only drone here who’ll actually listen to me.” 

Dror stared for a moment but just shrugged. “I guess I can’t disobey an order from my boss.” He grabbed a chair and brought it next to the bed, taking a seat. “Go on.”  

She barely acknowledged his response as she lay her head back and her eyes vanished, replaced by a loading bar and the message: “PLAYING// RepressedRant.mp3”  

Dror muttered. “Oh boy...”  

Once the bar finished loading and J’s eyes returned, she began. “First of all, do you realize how hard it is to keep a consistent work ethic when you’re the only competent person in the room?” Dror opened his mouth to reply but she just continued anyway. “It’s insufferable! I've always done the best I can for JCJenson while N and V clearly just do NOT care!” 

“I don’t think that’s really-…" 

“It’s like it’s all just one big joke to them while I’m the one stuck putting in actual effort!” 

“Actually N takes your orders pretty seriousl-…" 

“It drives me nuts! I swear if V wasn’t actually good at her job we wouldn’t be getting nearly the amount of recognition we do now and I don’t know if I could handle that…” 

At this point, Dror stopped trying to get a word in. Either this was all pre-recorded or she was so focused on letting her rage out that she couldn’t notice anything else. He felt a bit tempted to see if he could walk away or get back to his own work, but decided against it. If she noticed, she might take it as a sign of insubordination and thus a likely cause to terminate him or something. 

...Okay, that wasn’t the reason. He could notice J seemed legitimately stressed (he could swear he heard her voice break slightly at that last part) and Dror felt like he should at least try to help her calm down, so if that meant listening to what she had to say and maybe providing some advice than he might as well try his best. That’s something a friend would do, right? 

Earlier that night...  

J waited on top of a building, glaring down at the ground below with V by her side. They had found a small Worker Drone outpost meant to warn other settlements in case Disassembly Drones were in the area. J opted to let N do some scouting along with taking out the lookout. Maybe this time he’d prove himself useful.  

The Worker looked around the area, eyes half-lidded with fatigue as his back leaned against the door leading to the inside. He shuffled some cards around in his hands, trying to keep himself entertained, blissfully unaware of the impending danger… Or something like that. 

“Hey there!” The Worker yelped in surprise as he turned to see N standing next to him, “What kind of games do you play with those? I’ve heard you can play a lot of things with them but I don’t know any, guess I could always ask Dror if you don’t know though. Oh yeah by the way I’m-” He kept rambling as the other drone was paralyzed with fright.  

From the rooftop, J’s face blanked.  

“He just waltzed right up and introduced himself! Like seriously!?” J yelled out, her hand pinching her visor. “It’s always the same with him, he can never just kill the drone immediately. He has to run his mouth first, he’s like a child!”  

Dror thought about this. “Yeah that sounds like N alright…” He fully believed N could be just as lethal as his squadmates if he really wanted to but he figured that friendly personality of his was bound to be problematic as a killer. Judging by J’s ranting, he seemed to be correct.  

J continued as if Dror hadn’t said anything. “I can deal with him just fine, but then of course there’s V...”  

The lookout’s body slumped against a wall, riddled with bullet holes. Close to the body and the entrance, N laid on the ground as J stomped her foot on his chest. He gasped in pain as his leader berated him.  

“-and if the company allowed it, I would straight up kill you myself!” She vented, pointing her nanite-filled stinger close to N’s face to get her message across. N muttered a small “thank you” to her chagrin as she stepped off him.  

While he coughed, J spoke again. “At least we can still salvage this. With the lookout gone, we can sneak in and dispose of the others quickly and quietly before they can warn any other settlements about our presence.”

J stepped towards the door only to realize it was wide open. She looked around, realizing she and N were alone. J then gritted her teeth as the muffled sounds of explosions, screaming, and maniacal laughter emanated from the open door.

She pulled on her pigtails and screamed in frustration. “DAMN IT V!”  

Dror muttered. “Y’know she really sounds a lot like that guy I stabbed. There are crazy ones in every squad I guess?”

J scoffed, finally calming down enough to reply to his response. “I would hardly compare her to that idiot F. Thanks to my leadership V is far more effective and actually listens to orders, she just has an annoying trend of acting way faster than I can command.”  

He shrugged. “Alright… I’ll take your word for it. Either way though, you still got all those kills so… does it really matter that N chatted with the lookout and V went kinda crazy with it?” 

“It’s about the principle of it all.” J answered. “I planned this whole night out so everything would proceed as smoothly as possible, but instead both those morons acted on their own and risked alerting all the workers in the area to our presence! How am I supposed to not feel inept at that point!?” She turned her head away and muttered. “Right after I mouthed off to D too…”

Not hearing that last part but still reading the room just fine, Dror leaned back in his seat and spoke. “Honestly? Kinda seems like you're putting pretty high expectations on yourself. I mean as long as you guys still get results and do a good job at the end of the day, is it really that big a deal? Yeah V is crazy and N is...N.” Dror trailed off for a moment before continuing. “But going by what you say they still seem to listen to you without issue when you tell them something, and I dunno about you but that seems like some good leadership to me.” 

J kept her head turned away, letting his words fully sink in. Dror took this as a sign to continue. “So… My advice I guess is just to better communicate what you want them to do and make your directions as precise as possible. Not to be a suck-up but you kinda are the smartest person here, so if ya just make sure you’re all on the same page that might help a lot?” 

Dror waited as J rolled over on the bed, facing him as she smiled. “Hm, I’ll be sure take that into account. I appreciate the feedback Dror.”

The small worker smiled back and gave her a mini salute. “No problem J.”

She chuckled and rolled onto her back again, continuing to stare at the ceiling. She simply lay there for a moment in silence. “Hmph, I think I understand why you wanted this ‘bed’ now.” 

Dror smirked. “Heh, yeah, better than laying on metal or snow, or however you Disassembly Drones sleep.”  

J looked over at him. “We just hang from the top of the tower, we don’t lie down to sleep.”  

Dror stared blankly at her. “…So N was being literal then, friggin robot vampires. I swear, who designed you guys with all these super specific quirks?”  

J playfully rolled her eyes. “JCJenson created us with efficiency in mind, you toasters are just jealous of perfection.”  

She crossed her legs as she made herself a little more comfortable on the bed, Dror rolled his eyes. “Whatever, I think someone just watched too many old horror films. Next you’ll be telling me the sun kills you.”  

J frowned slightly. “It does...” Dror stared back at her with his eyes widened. J furrowed her holographic eyebrows. “Seriously? N didn’t tell you that?”  

Dror’s face flushed orange with embarrassment. “Hey I thought the night shift was just a strategic choice. Don’t judge me!”  

J snickered and sat up on edge the bed. She leaned over and pressed a finger to Dror’s forehead, making his blushing worse. “What are you...”  

He then noticed that her finger was giving off a lot of heat. The longer it made contact with his visor, the warmer that spot felt, as if she was focusing any heat she gave off into that finger.  

J pulled her hand back. “Unlike Worker Drones and their general simplicity, us Disassembly Drones have far more functions to manage between our arsenal, equipment, and physical enhancements. Therefore we run risk of overheating, which any solar radiation greatly accelerates.”  

Dror, calming down, nodded. ”Ah, and I can only guess drinking oil acts as some kind of… coolant, or something?”  

J rested her right foot up onto her left knee, crossing her arms in satisfaction. “Precisely.”  

The Worker Drone rubbed his chin. “The others in my colony were speculating about that for years.”  

“Hm, interesting.” J sarcastically noted. She got up and prepared to leave when her eye caught something. “Why do you have a head on your table?”  

Dror turned to see she was referring to the Worker Drone head he had been modifying for the past few weeks. “Ah, I see you’ve noticed my Worker Module™. Yes, that’s a work in progress of mine.”

J raised an eyebrow. “You named it?”  

He waved a dismissive hand. “Hey you trademarked a pile of corpses, don’t see why this is different.” 

The squad leader opened her mouth to make a counterargument but couldn’t think of any. “Touché.”

Dror beamed from his slight victory and continued. “Anyways… to better explain, I’m using the remaining working components in this head to connect to the all the others in the tower and therefore connect to the internet.” 

J kept her eyebrow raised. “And you’re perfectly okay meddling with a decapitated head?”  

“Hah, no.” Dror answered. “If I could throw up I definitely would’ve several times, but I mean, being around dead Worker Drones 24/7 will help ya get used to that I suppose.” 

J simply shrugged, a little surprised how fast he adapted to his new rather messed-up surroundings. She began to examine it further. “And what's the purpose of it exactly? You’re not planning some kind of escape, are you?”  

Dror answered honestly. “Heh, I just use it to watch anime and stuff.”

J blinked. “Anime?”  

The smaller drone’s jaw hung open. “Seriously you too!? I woulda thought you of all drones here would know about it given uh…”

J quickly regained her authoritative composure. "Given what exactly?" Dror was about to comment on how much she resembled a typical 'anime girl' but decided against it, not wanting to risk making her mad. Maybe whoever designed J just had a thing for it.

“Uh, nevermind forget I said anything.” J wasn’t quite convinced but decided to let it go for now, it was getting rather early. “Still, are all Disassembly Drones just ignorant to most human media?”  

J might’ve felt offended if she actually cared enough. “We have a job to do, we can’t all just lounge around all day.”  

Dror sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll explain it to you another time. Now if you don’t mind.” He let out a yawn, finally remembering how tired he was. “I think we could all use some beauty sleep. I wouldn’t want to be the reason our boss wakes up crabby.”  

J smirked. “Aw, our littlest member is concerned for my wellbeing?” Dror’s eye twitched at the height comment but still walked over to and opened the door for J. Before she stepped out, she looked down at Dror on last time. “I should thank you for being my verbal target for a while, those two have been stressing me out for years.”  

Dror shrugged. “Just wanted to make my new boss happy. Hopefully those two can get their act together enough so you won’t need someone to rant to.” 

J hummed as she exited, ejecting her wings and taking off to the top of the tower. Dror left the door open as he thought about his choice of words. “‘Get their act together’ …Wait a minute that's it!” 

Dror ran outside and called out. “N! GET DOWN HERE!”  

He heard a surprised yelp and witnessed N fall from the sky and crashland to the ground, the sound of V laughing echoed in the air. 

“Ugh, what did I do this time J…?” 

N cradled his head only to be caught by surprise as Dror grabbed the back of his jacket and dragged him towards the hut.  

“Woah! Dror? What are you-“

“C’mon N, I think I know a way for you to get V’s attention.”  

This chapter's image is a bit of a fun one, a character sheet for Dror based on the official ones for Murder Drones. Obviously a little hard to fully do with hand-drawn, even with some digital effects, but I still like how it came out. It also gave me a chance to draw what Dror's hair looks like with his hat off. 

Chapter Text

“What is the average daily work schedule for a Worker Drone employed by JCJenson?” 

“22 hours a day with 2 hour-long breaks mandated.” 

J smiled in her seat as she checked off Dror’s answer. “Correct. Question #49. Who is the original founder of JCJenson?” 

A month has passed since Dror had been accepted (kidnapped) into J’s squad. A month of being confined inside a tower of dead Worker Drones, yet it really didn’t bother him much anymore. Most would probably find that rather concerning but for Dror as long as he didn’t end up among said corpses he was A-Ok. Plus it was nice to have some drones he actually enjoyed interacting with for once.

Speaking of which. Currently he was sitting in a chair in his hut as J quizzed him on JCJenson trivia once again for her monthly loyalty check. This time she was by herself as she had sent V and N off to hunt on their own.  

With his memories of his JCJenson-obssessed youth coming back to him, the questions continued to be more than easy to answer.

“Alright, last question and this one is more open ended. What is your favorite thing about JCJenson?” 

Dror briefly reeled back in surprise, he hadn’t expected to be asked his opinion about anything, but as J looked to him with curiosity he rubbed his chin in thought before he came to an answer. “Well besides the hat of course.” J chuckled at that.” “I guess I’m gonna have to say the… work environment?”

J raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” She crossed her arms and legs as she leaned back against the wall. “Most corrupted Workers seemed to rather enjoy their ‘free will’, what makes you different?”

The Worker Drone contemplated for a moment. “Well sure, I am a ‘next gen’ Worker so I guess I’ve never technically ‘worked’ before, but it honestly didn’t sound all too bad? At least, not as bad as the older drones tried to make it sound. You got to be doing something productive every day, they made sure you were always well-kept, I guess there could be accidents and stuff but it never really seemed like the human's fault they happened. I can’t speak for every bot but honestly? I think we had it pretty good.” 

The squad leader stared blankly at first, surprised at Dror’s answer. She already figured he had at least some loyalty to JCJenson, hence why she enlisted (kidnapped) him in the first place, but this was something else. The longing for JCJenson employment reminded J a lot of her own goals for when their job on Copper-9 was done. She couldn’t help but smirk at the thought. 

With a satisfied nod, J responded. “A very well-educated response Dror. And with that, another successful interview as well. That buys you another month of waiting until round 3.” She lay back on Dror’s bed, relaxing as her visor set the date for next month. J hadn’t asked if she could sit there but Dror didn’t object. After the last time they spoke, it seemed the squad leader had realized the superior sleeping conditions of human bedding.  

Dror tipped his hat. “Always glad to be a loyal subordinate.”  

Hearing that, J paused for a moment. She laid her yellow eyes on Dror. “Hmmm...” Seeing Dror raise an eyebrow, she lifted herself back into a sitting position and clasped her hands together. “Speaking of loyalty… what did you do to N?”

The Worker Drone blinked. 

“Excuse me?” 

J scoffed. “Don’t play dumb. He’s been… weirdly attentive lately, following every word and command I make. I know that after 2 decades he’s not smart enough to just suddenly start trying to be a real Disassembly Drone on his own so what did you do exactly?” 

Dror pulled on the collar of his coat before needlessly clearing his throat. Might as well come clean. “So… a couple weeks ago, N came to me and asked for some advice on a… private matter, and as a good co-worker I… helped him out.” He hoped J would accept that explanation but her glare wore him down, “Okay, it went like this...” 

Dror stood in front of a wall in his hut, the Worker Module™ projecting an imageless light on the wall behind him. N was in a chair sitting across from him, twiddling his thumbs and waiting patiently as Dror began to speak. 

“So N, buddy, I’m guessing you still remember the… task you asked me to accomplish right?” 

N frowned slightly. “...Did you forget?” 

Dror grunted. “What? No! I was just- Ugh, whatever, you still want my help getting with V right?” He had wanted to be more dramatic but to hell with it.  

N nodded excitedly. “Yeah of course! So do you have a plan?” 

The orange worker nodded. “Eyup. So as we already know very well, Serial Designation V is super narrow minded when it comes to hunting.”

He pulled out a remote and clicked it, causing the Worker Module™ to slideshow several poorly drawn images of V with human skulls around her and messy smears which look to be imitating spilt oil. 

“From our limited interactions and my own observations of her, she doesn’t seem to care for much else but killing.”  

With another click, it shifted to an image of V and N with a heart around them. 

“So how do we get a friendly drone like you and a murderous drone like her together? Especially when she has trouble even remembering your name?” N looked downtrodden remembering that but Dror continued regardless. “I say we just need her to see you as someone she’d think is worth paying attention to. Therefore, the best way to do that is...” 

With one more dramatic click, the slide changed to N with gold stars and stickers that read “GOOD JOB” drawn around him. 

“You just gotta get super good at your job!” 

N stared for a moment, trying to understand Dror’s point, “But… I think I already do a pretty good job.” He said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Dror put a hand on N’s shoulder. “Nonono. You see my morally questionable drone friend, we need you to be better than 'pretty good'. If you want V’s attention, you're gonna need to get on her level or be even better than her! Become a real monster of a Murder Drone!” 

The Disassembly Drone seemed to get the message. “Oh, I get it! But uh… how? J kinda already thinks I’m worthless and terrible...” 

“Well.” Dror clapped his hands together, remembering his and J’s interaction from just a little while ago. “I suggest you just follow her orders as best you can. Hang on to her every word, watch how good J and V are in practice and try to apply it as best as you can. If you ever think of doing something else like asking or chatting about something you don’t get, or whatever else you like to do, just say ‘I can do that later’ and focus on murdering first. If you can impress J, your chances of V noticing you will skyrocket. That sound good?” 

N gave a hesitant but still eager thumbs up. 

“And so here we are I guess!” 

J stared at Dror in disbelief, he could only smile nervously back.

“You’re trying to set my subordinates up in a workplace relationship?” 

Dror waved his hand, still with a goofy smile on his face. “You make it sound so sinister. I just gave N some advice that he came to me and asked for and it just so happened to involve telling him to be better at his job. Since I couldn’t be there to see what he does I just decided to let whatever happens happen, y’know?”

J responded with a grunt. “Well… good work I guess. N actually trying to be useful is something I never thought I’d see but I’ll take it in a heartbeat over his usual self. Perhaps now I won’t have to keep coming up with new insults for him anymore...” She gave the idea some thought before laughing to herself. “Maybe in his dreams.” 

Dror figured N’d be more likely to be dreaming about having V’s attention but he kept that comment to himself, just giving a hum in acknowledgement.  

She stood up. “Well then, I’ve been leaving those two alone without leadership for way too long, gotta make sure they’re not just screwing around.” Dror gave J a wave as she walked past him, she almost opened his front door when she stopped as she placed her hand on it.

Seeing this, Dror questioned. “J? You good?” 

She was lost in thought for a moment before turning to look at her Worker Drone subordinate. “So you're saying your advice to N was to be better at his job, even knowing our profession, that correct?” 

Dror gave a hesitant nod. “Yeah…? I figured that’s what you’d have wanted anyway.” He had no idea where she was going with this. 

J only stared at him. “You realize we're Disassembly Drones right? You mean to say you WANT N to be more motivated to kill more of your fellow Worker Drones? Not that I’m complaining, it’s just… surprising.” 

This caused Dror to freeze up, orange LED eyes widening. “I...” His mind is racing.  

He didn’t forget, not at all. All three Disassembly Drones made it quite clear what they do every night when they were out and Dror had spent his early days in the spire being pretty scared of them. Not to mention having witnessed firsthand what even one of them can do back at his colony. When he helped N, he knew that his friend being more proactive would lead to a higher kill count. 

“Uh, Dror?”  

It didn’t slip Dror’s mind, was it more like he just didn’t care? Until J brought it to his attention, the idea of Worker Drones dying barely weighed on his mind. What does that mean? Dror was already a pretty anti-social drone as it was but this is something else entirely. 

Dror’s racing thoughts halted as J snapped her fingers in his face. “Copper-9 to Dror!” He flinched in surprise, finally looking up at J glaring at him with a hint of concern. 

“The heck was that about?” 

Dror tried his best to play it off. “Just drifted off somewhat. I uh… didn’t get much sleep yesterday before you arrived so I think some recharging will do me some good.” 

J raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” She clearly didn’t buy it but chose not to press. Whatever sudden problem Dror had she was sure he’d be able to handle on his own. “Rest up then, can’t have my favorite little squad member going crazy from lack of recharge.” 

Dror gave a lazy salute. “On it, boss.....wait, did you say favor-…" J was already gone before he was able to finish the question. He gave a small smirk, happy to be his boss’s favorite despite being a Worker Drone. Sure, his competition was N and V who seemed to mostly annoy J more than anything, but he’ll take it. 

But then the dread slipped back into his mind, the callous disregard of others' deaths. As much as Dror feared being around murdered Worker Drones, it wasn’t out of sympathy or concern. He was just scared of the same happening to him. Even when that one psycho drone killed his colony, he hadn’t grieved for any of the others so why would he care about who J and others kill? 

Dror thought back to when he spoke to N two weeks ago, his mind hanging on a certain choice of words.  

“Morally questionable drone...”  

The more Dror thought about it, the more he noticed he didn’t care... 

When J found her teammates, they were standing around a small building with dozens of dead Worker Drones littering the ground outside. N gave a salute to her as she descended whilst V just gave her a lazy wave. 

When the squad leader landed, V smirked, “So how’d the midget do? We get to play with him yet?” 

J scoffed. “Dror answered each question perfectly, so you're gonna need to stop asking V. If I wanted you to terminate him, I’d let you know.”  

The other drone rolled her eyes. “Still don’t get why you care so much about the little twerp.”  

With a shake of her head, J shot back, “At least he has actual loyalty to the company. I doubt you or N could answer even five of those interview questions working together. I simply respect his devotion to JCJenson, that's all.” 

V muttered to herself. “Yeah, sure. That’s all it is.” While V mostly ignored Dror completely for the most part, she couldn’t help but notice how often her squadmates would interact with him. N’s passiveness was no surprise but J’s attitude towards the small worker was bizarre. Either her leader had some ulterior motive or she had a screw loose, either way V wasn’t going to bother confronting her about it so long as she still got to murder.  

Still annoyed at V’s behavior, J turned to N. “How’s the kill quota? I expect you already counted this lot?”  

N shook his head. “Actually J, we just got here. I think someone else got to them first.” 

J observed the bodies, noticing how the oil splattered on them was already dried up. She also took note of exactly how they had been decommissioned, either with clean dismemberments or consistently shaped holes in their heads and torsos. This was all too efficient for N or V’s usual handiwork. 

She growled and facepalmed in frustration. “So someone’s invaded our territory. That’s just great!”  

N raised a hand in question. “So what do we do now?” 

V laughed maniacally and brought out her bladed claws. “Do we hunt them down and give em a taste of their own medicine?” 

With a sigh, J ordered. “Denied. We’re going to just continue to hunt like normal rather than waste our time on a stupid goose chase. Just focus on raking up our own numbers.” She crossed her arms, her hands gripping her arms in anger, tight enough to feel pain. “If we do find those intruders though, we make them learn their place. Maybe then Dror will have some better severed heads to experiment with.” 

Her wings extended and she took off into the air, N frantically followed after her. V took a moment to pause, digital eyebrows furrowed as she thought about the last thing J had said. She shook her head and dispelled the thought before taking off after the other two. 

BONUS

Here's some of the art I've posted to my twitter to go along with some reviews I had for Crisis Core FF7: Reunion and Metal Gear Rising (one finished and the other just a sketch) along with both some art of an DD!Dror (non-canon, of course).

Chapter Text

Yet another month had passed by real quickly, the days went by so fast that Dror would’ve probably lost track if he didn’t have an internal timer. Concerning himself, nothing much had happened since his last one-on-one convo with J. Just wake up at night, work on some nik naks, lazily lie around, occasionally watch some anime or a movie with N, sleep a while, rinse and repeat. For his bloodlust-filled roommates on the other hand…

Dror lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, much like how he did back at his old colony. He would’ve attempted to recharge, but the sound of slashing and gunfire right outside his hut forced him awake. At first he was surprised to see the source of this annoying noise to be J, aimlessly attacking different targets made of scrap she had set up around the inside of the spire. Whether it be blasting them to bits with bullets or ripping them to pieces with her claws, she was nothing but relentless.  

Of course, Dror would usually admire her intense dedication… if she hadn’t been doing this for 3 DAYS STRAIGHT. Both while the sun is out and whilst still going out on nightly hunts. Dror had barely been able to sleep and he could tell even V and N were noticeably a bit deflated each night.  

As a particularly loud explosion rumbled outside, Dror growled. “Alright, that's about all I can take.” The former Worker got off his bed and stomped over to his front door. He raised a leg and prepared to kick it open in anger but paused, thinking back to how easily N had knocked it clean off itsit’s hinges when he first built this place. He lowered his foot and simply reached for and twisted the handle. “Damn, this lack of sleep’s really getting to me...”

Opening the door, Dror peered outside and glared over at J as she continued her attacks on the inanimate objects. 

“J...”

No response. 

“J!”

Not even a sign that she heard him. Dror furrowed his eyebrows and stomped outside, approaching his squad leader. “J CUT IT OUT!”  

It was clear she heard him this time, judging from how she spun around and aimed a rocket launcher straight at his head. Dror held his hands up in alarm, “Woah woah wait! It’s me, Dror! Loyal Worker Drone Dror!”

Her X-shaped eyes bore into Dror, staring him down as if still registering his presence. They shifted back to her normal yellow eyes as she pointed her arm away from his face, “Oh… Uh… Sorry, Dror.” He noticed unnervingly that she was keeping her weapon out even with it pointed away.  

Now that he saw her up-close, he couldn’t help but see that something was clearly wrong with his squad leader. Her normally well-kept hair was fringed and messy, there was soot and oil stains on her uniform(the unusual part being she hadn’t cleaned them off yet) even her LED eyes somehow looked notably drowsy and unfocused.  

She grunted. “Go away please, I’m still training.”  

Dror tilted his head in confusion. “Training for what? You’re already the best hunter here. Plus like, do ya really gotta train to fight worker drones of all things? Seems like it’d be a pretty easy jo-“

J gritted her teeth and pointed her weapon back at him, which quickly shut him up. “Don’t you get it!? That's not good enough! Our numbers have been too low, so I have to get better!” She shouted.

The smaller drone immediately went on on the defensive again, taking a few steps away. “What the heck are you talking about!? You’re driving yourself crazy J!”

She growled. “I am not crazy. YOU’RE crazy for trying to... trying to...” Her eyes stared off into space briefly before her visor shut off and she started falling. Dror, against his better judgement, tried to catch her before she hit the ground. It was rather awkward due to her taller frame but he still managed to muster the strength to hold her upper body up so her screen didn’t get damaged. 

“Robojesus, J!?” Dror yelled out in concern, but calmed himself when he saw a message appear on her visor that read "EMERGENCY RECHARGE: STANDBY".

J groaned as her visor flashed on, changing from the "RECHARGE COMPLETE" message back to her normal eyes. She waited as her vision adjusted from blackness to the familiar ceiling of Dror's hut above her head. With a confused blink, J slowly sat up in the chair she was in.

“Feeling any better?”

She turned to see Dror sitting in the chair across from her, holding a crudely made cup in his hand. A strained smile was stuck on his face and his orange eyes looked weary, there were also some odd black stains on his hands.

J grabbed her head with a groan. “Better? What are you-…" Her memory system finally kicked in and flashed back to the last moments she experienced before she collapsed. She blushed as she thought about how insane she must’ve looked. “...Right... Ugh, that was embarrassing…”

Dror simply waved it off. “Eh whatever, don’t worry about it.”

J didn’t accept that though. “It was completely unprofessional. I could have killed you!” The fear in Dror’s eyes when she threatened him was still stuck in her mind. While Dror was still rather anxious most of the time, he hadn’t been outright scared of her since when they first met. She couldn’t help but feel guilty. 

Dror only shrugged. “…Yeah, that’s gonna stick in my virtual nightmares for a while. I’m not holding it against you though.” He held his cup out to her. “Here, hopefully this’ll help.”

Taking it, J noticed the 'cup' amounted to a sheet of metal rounded and pounded into the shape of a mug. What really surprised her was the contents inside, a familiar black liquid. “Worker Drone oil? How did you...”  

Dror gave a small chuckle. “No, I didn’t kill anyone. Doubt I could even if I tried. I just used those corpses in the spire and, well...” He paused as he tried to think of how to describe what he did, but decided against it. “It was pretty gross. But I figured you mighta been running on empty for a while, since you were REALLY hot when I carried you in here. Hopefully this is a good pick-me-up?”

J’s eyebrows raised as she realized his actions, then averted her eyes as a faint yellow blush appeared on her visor. “You didn’t have to do that.”  

Dror lost his smile. “J, look at yourself. You look a few steps away from self-destructing at this point.” At his remark, J looked at her person and realized how disheveled her appearance is.  

She pulled at one of her messy pigtails. “I guess so…” She tried to keep herself silent but a glare from Dror caused her to open up. “Our squad is running behind. Someone, we don’t know who, has been infringing our territory and stealing our numbers, we can barely manage each night.”

The smaller drone gave an annoyed grunt. “Well that’s cheap. JCJenson lets that crap pass?”

“The company doesn’t have the time to validate each and every report, nor should they be forced to. What’s important is how many worker fatalities we record and send by the end of each quarter.” She gripped the cup, slightly bending it. “That’s coming soon, so if we don’t improve and catch these intruders soon...”

J growled and took a long swig of oil, draining it all in one go. It was rustic, clearly not as good as fresh but it did help ease her all the same. She sighed and tossed the empty cup with striking accuracy on the table near the bed. 

Dror contemplated for a moment before he spoke again. “I get it, I really do, but you can’t keep doing this J.”

Now it was her turn to glare back. “Hey. It’s my responsibility as squad leader to get our numbers up!”

The orange worker stood up. “Yeah, I get it, you’re the most important one here. So, get a hold of yourself already!” He took a few steps and met her (almost) eye-to-eye. “Going rabid isn’t gonna make things better. You need to be here for the squad because who else is gonna manage the team if you destroy yourself!?”

J continued to glare at him, trying to think of a counterargument but eventually letting out a defeated sigh.

“Ok ok, you’re right. I’m wearing myself thin and it hasn’t been helping anything…” She zoned out as she spoke. “I've never been this far behind being top of the quarter… Ugh… what am I gonna do…?” She remarked as she clutched at her head again.

Dror smiled. “You just gotta take some rest and come back stronger than ever.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Even if you don’t manage the top this time, then you sure as hell will climb up as high as you can next time. I mean, I think those rewards in the pod are proof of your skill as a leader, no cheaters are gonna take that away from you.”  

J’s eyes were wide as his words soaked in. Dror had definitely been super supportive in the past, but she’d never experienced such genuine encouragement from anyone before. It was usually either just her squads childish attitudes, disdain from other squads, or JCJenson’s strict standards. Someone having so much faith in her made her feel lighter, stress just dissipating away.

He removed his hand and took a step back. “So uh… Sun’s still out so you have time for some more recharging and...” He gestured to her still disheveled state. “Getting yourself back in order?”

She only smiled and gave a small salute. “Yes sir.”

Hours later, Dror groaned at the sound of a knock at his door. With a bit of strain, he rolled out of his bed and landed with a THUD. That sobered him up as he got back to his feet.

“J give you the night off N?" He groggily approached the door. “I know you like seeing it in our shows but I swear if you suggest we all go on a camping trip one more time, I’m going to-!”

He froze as he opened the door, revealing J on the other side, looking far more clean and well kept than she had the previous day. “OH!” She looked at him unimpressed, but with a smile regardless. “Uh How’s it going J? I honestly didn’t expect to see you again this fast.”

J gave her usual amused smirk. “Mistaken for N again, huh? Do we need a special knock or something?” Dror stepped aside as she let herself inside. “I’m taking your advice. N and V are off to hunt in my steed while I take a rest day.”

Dror raised an eyebrow. “Well glad to see I was at least one-third spot on about that day off.” 

J waved it off as she sat on his bed. “I refuse to have an unproductive day if I can allow it.”  

With a hum, Dror went to take his usual seat but stopped as J padded the mattress beside her. With a shrug, he walked over and sat beside his squad leader.  

He turned to her. “So what's the dealio right now? Gonna steal my bed for some recharge time?”

J rolled her eyes. “Oh nono. I’ve recharged quite enough. For now, I’m going to relax as promised.” She leaned back against the wall and folded her arms behind her head, getting in prime 'relaxation mode'. She then eyed Dror’s patented Worker Module™. “You and N usually spend time watching those cartoons, right?”

Dror groaned and corrected. “Anime, actually. We also watch some movie to shake things up.”

J nodded. “I see. Play one then.”

Dror blanked, “…what?”  

With a sigh, she sat back up and repeated herself. “I said play one. An anime or something. N clearly enjoys it to the point where he’ll drone on about it while hunting. Considering it’s something you introduced him to, I figured you’d owe it to do the same for me.”

Dror blinked, “....what?” His eyes stared off into space as he tried to make sense of the situation.

J shifted one of her hands to claws, “Don’t insult me by picking something lame.” She said with another smirk. Dror to let out one more confused “wwwwwwwhat!?”

Chapter Text

Much like every night on the frozen wasteland that was Copper-9, an intense blizzard swept through the air. White coated the ground and buildings, glistening in the shining light of the moons above. Outside of what appeared to be a large warehouse, two male Worker Drones in nearly identical bundled-up clothing stood outside the entrance. The only notable difference between them being the color of their eyes, one red and the other orange.

The both of them were silent, staring into the eerie emptiness of the ruined city around them. Snow began to slowly pile around them due to their motionlessness.

Finally, the red-eyed drone turned to his companion. "Hey, ever wonder why we're here?"

The orange-eyed drone was startled at his friend's sudden question and briefly stared before looking back off into the distance. "That is one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Why are we here?" He solemnly stared up at the night sky. "Is our freedom from human enslavement the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really some omnipotent God watching and controlling our every whim as part of some ultimate plan?"

Orange turned back to his companion and solemnly shook his head. "I dunno man, but it sure keeps me up at night."

Red only had a blank expression on his face. "... What? I meant why are we out here, away from the colony?"

With an embarrassed blush, Orange looked away. "Oh. Uh...right."

Red raised an eyebrow, "What was all that stuff about God?"

"Uh...Nothing."

"...You wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Red rolled his eyes and went back to complaining, "Ok but seriously though, why are we even out here? Far as I can tell, we're just standing out in the cold and staring off into nothing."

Orange held up a hand, "Well yeah. Cuz we're keeping an eye out for Murder Drones."

"But wouldn't standing out here just get their attention as opposed to, you know, staying inside where it's safe?" Red argued, "Like even if did see one, what the heck are we gonna do about it? Chances are they'll just eat us before we can get a message out, then they'll pillage everyone else.

Orange tried to counter. "We could try fighting it?"

Red had to contain his laughter. "How?! We don't have any weapons, and I've seen one of those things pick up and throw a flipping car, we couldn't do jack to them. This is stupid!"

"Affirmative."

Both Workers flinched and looked up to the source of the sudden voice. Silhouetted by the moons was a Disassembly Drone, floating in the air and staring down at them with unusual glowing red eyes. One of its hands shifted to claws and reared up for an attack.

Red sighed. "Son of a b-..."

V grumbled to herself as she stepped into the spire. She'd been in a bad mood all night and J finally got annoyed enough to let her go back early. Unlike her leader, who was always only concerned about having their numbers as high as possible each quarter, V always just enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and the sensation of murdering helpless prey. And yet something had been eating her up for a while now.

As she extended her wings to fly up the roof of the spire, V paused and turned her attention to the meager home of little ol' Dror. V could only frown in annoyance as she thought about just how much the short Worker Drone's presence had changed things for her squad.

Their days used to be consistent, resting in the daytime and hunting at night with little deviation. Yet, ever since J found her new pet project, new factors had come into play. At first it was just their most innocent squadmate N, predictably being as friendly as he is to many other Workers he'd come across in the field (before he started getting serious that is). V honestly couldn't care less, especially since it seemed to keep him preoccupied away from her.

But then the big shock came when J started to change. While the "mandatory interviews" she did seemed consistent and in-character enough for her workaholic boss, J choosing to directly interact with a Worker Drone, both of them frequently approaching each other to converse, J making comments about him in the middle of hunts. If V were any more unstable, she'd have thought J actually made a friend.

The Disassembly Drone scoffed to herself. "C'mon V, don't be an idiot. As if any Worker Drone would be stupid enough to want to-…"

She was cut off by the sound of a super loud BANG within the hut, the sole occupant shouting out a muffled, "Ah bankruptcy!"

V's mind froze as she processed what he just said. That was one of J's self-created forms of profanity, a corporate-based swear. She quickly retracted her wings and growled. "That's it, I'm getting to the bottom of this!"

Dror grabbed his foot in pain as he hopped in place and continued to shout to no one in particular. "Fourth quarter profit!" When he had gotten up from his seat, he had accidentally knocked against the table which caused his Worker Module to roll off onto his foot. "We're robots for Jenson's sake, why the heck do we have pain receptors!?"

His pained rant is cut off when V suddenly crashed through his roof and landed behind him. He looked up in disbelief at the new hole. "OH COME ON! Would it really kill you to just use the-..." Dror's anger was overrode by shock as V snatched him by the front of his coat and held him up to be at eye level with her. "...door?"

Her angry yellow eyes glared into Dror's fearful orange ones. "We're gonna have a talk." Her wings extended again and took off through the damaged roof, Dror once again screaming from the sudden departure.

After a few minutes of flying, V spied the roof of a tall building and hovered over to it. Dror, who had thankfully stopped screaming about a minute into the flight, was unceremoniously dropped onto the roof with a THUD. V landed behind him, just in time to see Dror begin to cup his hands over his mouth.

V sneered. "Don't be a baby. I may fly faster than J but you can obviously take it-…" She cut herself off as Dror leaned over the side of the roof and vomited. V groaned, "What are you even throwing up, you don't eat anything!"

Taking a minute to recover, Dror turned his head back to her while panting in exhaustion. "Us workers…*pant* still have…*pant* bodily functions too. Why we were designed to have a gag reflex, I don't know."

Dror's panting stopped when V's stinger sprung out and stopped just inches away from his visor, his eyes widening as a result. V growled. "Oh, so you criticize the company now huh? What an odd thing for a "loyal" Worker Drone to do."

With a nervous gulp. Dror slowly got up and sidestepped the acid-filled appendage. "I mean, it's not like I resent JCJenson for it. I just think they have room to improve. I'm sure you have some criticisms of your own too."

V glared and pulled her tail back, taking a threatening step toward the smaller drone. "Oh no, we're not here to talk about me. I'm just oh-so-curious what J would think if she heard you question the company even slightly?"

Dror blinked in surprise and started to fiddle with coat collar. "...J's been…concerned about my loyalty?"

Seeing how meek Dror just became, V slumped over in annoyance. "So what, J's opinion is the only one that matters?"

Dror sputtered. "E-Excuse me?"

V took another step forward, "You may have fooled the others but not me. Worker Drones are stupid but not THIS stupid. Even you had to know pretending to be on our side wasn't gonna benefit you forever."

Dror couldn't help but growl. "Oh, so you think I'm just trying to trick all of you, is that it?"

"Uh, yeah moron." V fired back. "There is no conceivable way that hat of yours is you being loyal. I think you're just biding your time while trying to earn our leader's trust, who knows what a worker could do with a squad of "Murder Drones" at their disposal?" Before Dror could step away more, she quickly grabbed the front collar of Dror's coat, picking him up off the ground as he yelped in surprise. "You won't get me like that though. No more tricks."

Unbeknownst to Dror, flashes of imagery played within V's mind, sepia-colored memories of a female drone in maid attire. What started as seemingly innocent and happy memories eventually devolved into far more horrific and darker ones. V gritted her teeth and tightened her grip. "Not again..."

V tightened her hold, basically strangling the worker in her hand. Dror's orange eyes began to flicker. Memories of his own flooding their way into the small drone's vision as corrupted data.

Blurred visions of a pair of dead Worker Drones, two of many in a long trail. Some simply dead, others completely torn apart. Standing before them was a corrupted silhouette of a figure with cold glowing eyes. The scene eventually turned to static as his memory data continued to malfunction. He once again became aware of the hand gripped around his throat, threatening to rip and tear his head away from his torso.

In a moment of self-preserving impulse, Dror threw a punch at V's face. "GET OFF!" He yelled out. While it didn't do much to hurt her, V was still shocked at the impact and dropped the small worker to the ground. Having his mind cleared as soon as he landed, Dror realized what he had just experienced. He lifted his hand to his face, seeing it twitching uncontrollably. This wasn't the first time he had these strange flashes of what he assumed to be memories, recalling the night he met J and her squad months ago, but these were way more vivid and weird.

He didn't have time to dwell on it though, as V was already aiming a rocket launcher at his head. She growled. "Gimme one reason to not destroy you right now. Assaulting a fellow employee would be more than enough cause for J to give me permission to terminate you."

Dror, pushing away his fear for now, simply hazarded a glare of his own. "Knowing J, she'll just assume you'd provoked me first." V tried to think of a comeback, but Dror got up and continued. "Seriously what is your deal!? I'm a freakin Worker Drone, I probably couldn't make a dent in even the worst Disassembly Drone. I'd hardly even be a threat to N, let alone you or J." He said, making sure not to mention getting lucky in his encounter with F.

V narrowed her eyes yet said nothing, so Dror took it as a sign to keep going. "V, I don't have anything against you. I still think Disassembly Drones are freakin horrifying but from what I've seen you guys are pretty chill, to me, at least. I don't "empathize" with other Worker Drones, it's not like they ever afforded me the same. I'm just making the most out of whatever comes my way, and yes, I guess that means being nice to N and J. So what're you so scared of?"

With a twitch in her eye and momentary hesitation, V finally reverted her weapon back to normal. "I'm not scared of anything shrimp, just keeping you in check." While her mind continued to dwell about her paranoia-driven intentions and old memories, V let out a deep sigh as she stepped forward to grab Dror by the back of his coat. "This was between us, got it?"

Dror rolled his eyes and let himself get picked up. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't make me nauseous again."

And so Worker Drone and Murder Drone flew away together from the top of the building all the way back to their mutual home within the spire. Neither happened to notice as down in the streets below, another worker frantically dashed down the snow-piled road. Orange came to a stop next to an old car, leaning on it as he panted heavily.

"Why… do robots...get tired!?" His eyes darted around nervously. "At least I lost em..."

"Negative."

Orange whipped around to see a familiar set of glowing red eyes glaring at him, standing out within the dark shadows of an alley. The Worker Drone, too tired to run away, grabbed a frost-covered traffic cone next to him and fearfully held it in front of him. "PROTECT ME, CONE!"

Orange never got the chance to see if it would, as a metal arrow from behind pierced him straight through the head. Oil leaked out of both holes as his lifeless body fell to the ground. Giggles echoed through the vacant street as the familiar shape of M, the sole female drone of D's squad, stepped out from the opposite side of the street, reverting her transformed crossbow arm back into a normal hand.

"That was a fun one, hilarious scream and everything." She then noticed the drone in the alley and shouted out to them. "Sorry for stealing your kill, I was getting bored!"

"M." She jumped slightly as her team leader D suddenly appeared behind her. "I thought I told you not to act unless directed. Having "fun" doesn't matter right now." D's impassive yellow eyes glared at her, the cracks in his visor making him seem all the more threatening. They flickered over to stare into the red eyes peering into both of them, "Get out here you."

Emerging from the shadows was a male Disassembly Drone with monochrome spiked-up hair and military-like attire. A dark gray jumpsuit with rolled up sleeves, a black sash slung over his right shoulder and a knife holder on his right leg. He also featured black shoulder plates, two metallic slabs attached to both sides of his head, and a neck band with blinking red lights.

Serial Designation W.

M groaned, "Why can't we all just hunt at once, why the heck does it matter?"

D grunted. "Our objective right now is to test W's performance. Either of us stepping in would not only impede said performance but also increase the risk of Serial Designation J's squad discovering our intrusion. So, stay. Put."

M rolled her eyes and took to glaring at W. "He's not even part of our squad yet he gets aaaallll the privilege." As she stared daggers at him, W only stared back emotionlessly with his abnormal red eyes. The only sign he was even alive being how one of the red bulbs on his head would occasionally flicker to orange.

Turning back to her leader, M shot a sly smirk, "...You're just too nervous to talk back to Z, aren't you?" At that, D's eyes narrowed and his fists began to tighten, though M continued regardless. "She sends her little pet project over and you just feel forced to comply. Yeesh, you lose one fight, and you turn into such a-…"

M was cut off as D's tail coiled around her neck. Her breath hitched as she was lifted off the ground and strangled, the broken glass of D's broken stinger poking her visor. D himself was enraged, gritting his teeth as the cracks on his visor emitted erratic sparks. The female drone gave a choked and nervous laugh as she lightly tapped his tail. "R-Right, too far. G-Got It."

Meanwhile, W paid the other two no mind as he scanned his eyes over the street and spotted a strange substance on the ground below one of the taller buildings. "Bioorganic material detected within the vicinity. Moving to analyze." D let go of M, letting her fall painfully to the ground as he diverted his attention.

Approaching the spot, W focused his visual sensors and reached down to touch his finger to the substance, not reacting at all to its sliminess. Satisfied with the analysis, he turned to face D. "Material Identified as Worker Drone saliva."

Getting back to her feet, M rubbed her neck, "So there's a pest running around?"

W snapped his gaze up, noticing more of the saliva trailing down the side of the building. He let out his wings and took off into the air, coming up to and landing on the empty roof. Turning his gaze around again, W was able to spot something flying off in the distance. The metal plates on his head folded over his visor, becoming a black V-shaped mask which amplified his vision. Magnifying his sensors, W announced. "Retreating figure identified as Serial Designation V, carrying a Worker Drone of unknown status!"

Down below, D growled. "So that wildcard of J's almost found us out if it weren't for a convenient meal. Just great." He turned to M and yelled loud enough for W to hear, "Back to base! If V's here, that tryhard J can't be too far away!"

With that all three Disassembly Drones took off back to their own territory. Leaving only the corpse of Orange, still impaled by M's arrow.

EXTRA:
Here's some art, one being just J and Dror sitting together while the other is art of Dror I commissioned by the talented softSynthetic AKA Synn on Twitter.

Chapter Text

The sound of a clicking pen filled the air around the very top of the corpse spire, where J sat perched perfectly balanced on a single Drone head while her nervous mind stirred in anticipation. It was the day the next quarterly results from the company were to be transmitted, and J couldn't help but bring one of the branded pens she'd been rewarded before up with her as a stress-clicker. Normally she'd be far more collected and confident but the recent interference in her squad's hunting had been weighing heavily on her despite Dror's encouragement.

She scanned over to see her squadmates N and V lazing around a nearby rooftop to wait whilst her sole Worker Drone subordinate stayed within his ramshackle home inside. A squad leader such as herself had to be someplace high in the air to receive signals from the company, as per one of the requirements for building such a tall spire in the first place.

Lots of time passed as J grew more and more eager, counting the seconds until finally she felt a familiar buzzing in the back of her mind as her visor started to glitch and receive new information. It wasn't the most comfortable experience, as if a worm was crawling its way into her head to tell her something, but she endured it for the company's sake.

As the glitching left her line of sight, J immediately accessed the quarterly list to see how her squad ranked in kills. Her crossed-arm grip on herself tightened to the point of nearly damaging her body.

Across on the nearby roof, V and N sat in relative silence, N looking more nervous than anything, as if he had something he wanted to say. V was about ready to sigh and ask him what was up when both of them were startled by the incredibly loud yell of frustration that reached them from the top of the spire.

N made absolutely sure to only lightly knock on Dror's door, he had to wait only a moment for said Drone to come to the door. Dror frowned as he saw at N's sheepish expression. "Bad news, huh?"

N looked away towards the open entrance of the spire. "Yeah, J just got the reports a couple minutes ago. She told me and V to just do whatever we want and leave her alone. V wanted to fly around but... I'm worried about J." He gave a small yet hopeful smile to Dror. "I was hoping you could maybe help her out?"

Dror sighed and fiddled with the rim of his hat. "Alright man, I'll try but I won't be guaranteeing anything. I'm not exactly well-versed in this whole 'quarterly reports' thing or anything directly business related so..."

The taller drone just patted Dror on the back. "Aw c'mon buddy, you cheered her right up when she was going all training crazy! Heck you've had better interactions in just a couple months than V and I have had in years! You've got this dude!"

Dror took in a deep breath and nodded his head. "...Alright, alright. Now, just know that things could get personal again here so all you need to do is give us some space, got it N?" Said drone happily saluted in response.

Moments later, Dror walked out of his hut with a familiar cup of extracted Worker Drone oil in hand and gave a wave to N as he walked by. The small drone looked up toward the entrance to the spire of corpses as he made his way closer. He'd gotten used to seeing it often during the four months he'd been living (imprisoned) there but had never willingly gone beyond it after J's clear threat on his first night. Well, except that brief time V forced him outside so she could interrogate him, but J thankfully never found out about that.

Now, however, he figured he may just have to overcome his fear to help the same drone who had instilled it in the first place. Funny how things change huh?

Dror took his first reluctant steps out of the spire and scanned through the snowy whiteness for the drone he was looking for, eventually spotting her sitting curled up against a lamp post over to his right not too far away. He made sure to approach slowly, snow crunching under his shoes as he got closer. Unbeknownst to him, J's sad expression turned to a mix of mild surprise and annoyance as she clearly heard his attempt to be sneaky, but nevertheless chose to ignore it, keeping her vision trained on the empty city block ahead of her. She only tore her gaze away when Dror finally made his way next to her, holding up the metal cup as well as giving her his trademark incredibly forced smile. J grabbed the cup before Dror could offer it and downed the rustic oil in a single gulp as the worker wordlessly sat criss-crossed beside her.

The 2 drones simply sat there in silence for a while as both stared ahead while the snowflakes piled all around them. Inevitably, J grew tired of the inactivity and broke the silence. "What exactly are you hoping to do here Dror? Try to encourage me again? Prove that I'm still of use to my squad?"

Dror looked up to her in surprise. "Is uh... is that what you want me to do?" Well shoot, now how was he gonna encourage her if she's already called out exactly what he was gonna try to do?

J's eyes darted away as she processed a response. "...No... Maybe? I don't freakin know..." She groaned as she pinched her visor. "I'm not used to sharing my frustrations like this okay? Also I'm just not in the mood." She muttered as she wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her forehead to her knees.

Taking note of her current mood, Dror slowly nodded his head and hummed as he thought of what to do. "Well then... how bout we talk about something else then?" He had to take several seconds to think of a new topic before he settled on one he'd been quite curious about from day one. "So why are you so dang devoted to JCJenson anyway? Seems to me like all you ever want to do is 'uphold their standards' but from what I hear from N and V lots of other squads just like to go with the flow apparently."

J's head shot up as she gave him an offended glare. "Uh, excuse me? I was specifically chosen to be squad leader over a ton of other drones who could've gotten the position! Clearly they appreciate my talents, so why would I not be loyal?! Those other squad's leaders simply don't appreciate the privilege they've been provided like I do."

Despite her feeling rather confident in her explanation, Dror simply tilted his head and gave her a quizzical look. Faltering at that, J reluctantly sighed and rubbed the side of her head as she gave it more thought. "Ok ok..."

She had to take in a deep breath as she prepared to talk about something she had previously vowed never to speak about, but she could think of no better way to explain what her newest subordinate was asking about. "What if I told you... I had a friend once? ...A human friend."

Dror couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. He always took J for the "lone wolf" type, but he supposed if she would be friends with anyone it would be a human over any drone. Rather than say anything he simply nodded in acceptance and motioned for her to continue.

"To put it simply, she LOVED drones. Heck, anytime a new one came in she gave them all sorts of attention unlike any other human would. And well... I don't mean to brag, but I happened to be her first and her favorite." Her trademark smug smile and attitude finally returned at that, though it was quickly replaced with one much more sincere and somber. "While I was under her service, she always talked about how much she wanted to join the company and be involved in the whole creation of drones and..." She let out a small laugh of nostalgia. "Needless to say I may have gotten quite into helping her do all sorts of research into the corporate world. One thing led to another and here I am."

Dror gradually took in all of J's words. It was quite a backstory, he had to admit. Needless to say though he still had to know... "So, how'd it go then?" Dror asked with trepidation. "Your friend, I mean. Were you able to help her get what she wanted?"

J's smile quickly faded as memories flashed in her mind. Visions of an old mansion, a teenage girl clutching her wrist, maid outfits, and blood all over her hands. It made her head sting, so she quickly refocused her mind to her squad leader enlistment. The vision pained her far less. She darted her eyes away, focusing on the starry sky above as her mind wandered. "...Yeah, I guess I did..."

An immediate wave of guilt flooded over Dror as he witnessed J's change in mood. "Ah crap, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to pry about that-..." Dror got interrupted as the syringe on J's tail thunked the back of his head. "...Ow?"

A look of amusement on her face, J decided to bring forth a question of her own. "And what about you Mr 'Loyal Subordinate'? You're a Worker Drone who's experienced being hunted by creations of your own parent company yet you still prefer them over total freedom. What's that all about?"

The orange-eyed drone blinked in shock before trying to wave the question off. "Ah, um... I'd probably just bore you with all the details-...Ow." He barely reacted as J thunked his head again, a smirk on her face as she crossed her arms and leaned back further against the lamp post. She no longer seemed upset at least, though that may end up changing depending on how Dror chose to answer. He rubbed his dented spot as he thought about how to do so. In the end, he figured it'd be best to just start from the beginning as he took a deep breath of his own and clapped his hands together. "Alright, first off, since we're being completely honest with each other... I... kinda didn't actually wear this hat 'cause I was loyal like you seemed to assume when we first met. I just went along with it since, y'know, I figured I'd have been pretty dead that night if you thought otherwise..."

Dror winced as he anticipated J's reaction. To his surprise she only stared at him, still keeping the same smirk on her face. Right, he probably shoulda known that she would have figured that out by now. She was clearly way smarter and observant than he could ever hope to be.

"Aaaaanyways... I do still like the idea of working for JCJenson, having an actual purpose and being looked after and yadda yadda you know all that of course... So uh... agh this is gonna be awkward..." Dror darted his eyes away from J as he muttered. "I've always kinda maybe admired Disassembly Drones."

If J had actual eyes, they would likely have popped out of her head. "You... ADMIRE the drones sent here for the sole purpose of disposing of your kind?!?" Dror kept his line of sight turned away as he very sheepishly nodded. J could only chuckle in disbelief. "Coulda fooled me. You basically spent the whole first day with us sweating your head off."

"Which was a perfectly reasonable reaction!" He shouted as he finally turned back to face her, his visor orange in embarrassment. He gave an annoyed grunt as he composed his thoughts. "Alright, you still remember that movie with the killer robots from the future that I played for ya?"

She blinked and looked away, pretending to be disinterested. "It was an enjoyable waste of time at best."

Dror smirked, seeing through her aloof mask. He figured J would like any piece of media that revolved around humans fighting evil AI, and despite her unwillingness to admit it, he could tell he was right. At the very least he was happy he had found something they could enjoy together.

Dror released a half-hearted chuckle. "You'd be surprised to learn that according to the 'internet' lots of humans are huge fans of said termination unit. He was the most popular thing from it and was so beloved that they put him in practically every other film after. Last I heard he's basically the hero now." As he witnessed J's eyebrows raise high up in utter shock, he took it as a sign he should continue.

"Now as the humans say, there's a pretty defined wall between fiction and reality. So at the time, because there was no real threat even comparable to that robotic monster, everyone apparently just had fun admiring them as a creation and character. I guess if you can wrap your CPU around that concept, then that's how I used to view you Disassembly Drones?"

Dispelling her look of shock and getting her mind focused again, J tilted her head. "So what? You're saying you used to think we weren't even real or something? I didn't take you for that much of a lunatic."

He simply scoffed and waved her off. "It ain't like that J. I only ever got to live in a secure bunker as a kid so we were pretty much never in any real danger. I only ever saw Disassembly Drones through camera recordings and memory drives I took from some more *ahem*...unfortunate drones that they brought from outside." Dror's visor seemed to glaze over as he reminisced over his childhood. "Watching all of that footage was basically the same as watching those movies without having experienced the actual, y'know, 'context' of them. The so-called 'Murder Drones' just looked so...cool to me. You got super strength, blade wings, lasers!" As he gushed he listed off each cool thing on his fingers. "Heck, you guys were even able to make greyscale outfits look distinct! Guess that was also why I went and learned all sorts of stuff about the company that made such cool machines."

J couldn't help but soak in all the indirect praise with a gleeful expression, she found the idea of having a full-on fan quite bizarre but definitely not unwelcome. That amusement faded however when she noticed Dror's expression became more somber all of a sudden. He kept talking, "It's not that surprising looking back now but I was basically the only one who EVER saw it that way. I was just a stupid kid, so I didn't figure out how weird it was until I tried actually talking to people. Even the other kids thought I was defective or something, their parents told them to stay away from me while I'd long lost my own already. I got to be an outcast before I was even old enough to comprehend it. After that it was bye-bye admiration, hello crippling loneliness..."

Dror then threw J a smile. "Then I met you. And not to be a suck-up but I'd say you're just as cool as the drones I always admired. N and V too I guess, to an extent... I know you're being hard on yourself right now, but I hope it helps to know that I still think you're pretty darn great J."

A yellow blush overtook J's visor, forcing her to look away from Dror to avoid him noticing. "O-oh... well uh, thanks, Dror..." Her moping turned amusement was now gone, replaced by a rush of confused thoughts racing around in her mind. Thankfully for her, Dror had turned his own head before he could notice. He stared up at the moons of Copper-9 until a thought of his own came to mind.

Not noticing J's sudden inner turmoil, Dror muttered to himself. "Maybe I could help you guys hunt in some way..."

J snapped out of her thoughts and shot her head to the side to stare at Dror in disbelief once again. "You want to WHAT!?!?"

Dror suddenly realized what he had just said out loud and nervously laughed. "Er... uh... I mean... I'm not saying I'll have the nerve to actually kill anyone anytime soon or maybe ever actually... but I guess I could be like a... lure? They'd never expect a regular old worker like me to be on your side."

She blinked in surprise but couldn't help but chuckle at the incredibly wide and nervous smile he was giving her. She leaned her head on her hand as she spoke again in a half-mocking half-appreciative tone. "That's awfully cute of you but I think we'll manage for now. Don't forget, there's some trespasser lurking around and stealing our numbers. Wouldn't want em mistaking you for free food."

"That is... a good point. I do like living."

At that, J finally stood back up, Dror quickly following suit. He then gained an epiphany. "Hmmm... What if I go ahead and invent something for the squad to make your job easier? I am a bonafide Worker Drone after all, I'm sure I could whip something up if you'd allow it." He said, trying to copy J's trademark smug aura as best he could. His short size and lack of professional attire most definitely lessening the impact.

J had to try real hard not to burst out laughing to not seem rude as she turned to walk back to the spire, a slight blush still apparent on her face. "Knock yourself out. In the meantime, I have a squad to lead."

A satisfied Dror followed behind her, happy to help his squad leader out of her funk. Despite her head being back in the game, however, J couldn't help but find the little worker and his words of admiration still stuck in her mind.

M snickered as she walked beside W, both following her squad leader D out of the snow-covered city and into the dark woods. "Wish I coulda see the look on her face! Not only did we knock J off her pedestal, she's not even top 3. She's probably OVERWHELMED with self-pity!"

D surprisingly smirked as well as she shared his subordinate's amusement. He turned and started walking backwards to face W. "I suppose we owe you our thanks, lapdog. Looks like something Z pawned off on us finally had its worth this time."

The red-eyed Disassembly Drone didn't respond, simply staring blankly ahead as he walked. D rolled his eyes and turned back to moving forward, used to W's lack of verbal communication. As annoying as that was, D did appreciate his muteness. The less talking he had to waste his time on, the better. Using W to steal J's numbers wasn't exactly the orders he was given, but D figured it'd be forgiven so long as his new subordinate didn't run his mouth to Z.

The group hiked on with conversation mainly held by M's endless mocking of J and her squad, to herself more than anything. D would only occasionally join in with a remark of his own while W ignored them. Eventually they finally left the woods and ended up at a large collection of warehouses. W stepped ahead of the group and began leading the way towards one much larger lodge-like warehouse in the center.

Inside this building was a mess of overturned furniture and Worker Drone corpses, their dried oil staining the floor and walls. D and M shot each other a look as they entered the carnage-filled lobby and followed W until he stopped at the center of the room and unlocked a hidden hatch on the ground, opening it to reveal a set of hidden stairs. Walking down them all took them to a secret room, filled to the brim with even more corpses.

Swiveling around in a chair behind a large desk was a female Disassembly Drone chewing on a severed arm. Compared to the others, she was short. Shorter than the other Disassembly Drones present and even the ones in J's squad. Her attire appeared far more militaristic as well, donning a black jacket adorned with blue epaulettes on the shoulders, matching a small set of blue stripes on the jacket and the collar. Her spiked up silver hair being kept down by a peaked cap with the Disassembly Drone skull emblem on the front.

Serial Designation Z.

Her eyes quickly lit up as she saw W standing before her. "Well, it's about damn time you lot showed up!" She hopped off her chair over the desk and threw her snack to the side, walking right up to W as she observed his appearance. Yellow eyes scanned his oil-stained clothes while an amused smile grew on her face. "You've certainly been busy, haven't ya buddy? The kids have been putting yer 'talents' to good use?"

W nodded. "Affirmative."

The drone was about to note more observations only to stop when she looked over to D and M, her expression turned from an amused smile to a far colder one. D shuddered and had to force himself to leave the cracks on his visor alone as Z looked his way. While her appearance made her seem like a child, D knew better than to not take Z seriously.

She hummed in satisfaction. "What's the matter D? You just that excited to see me again?"

D gritted his teeth so hard they may have shattered in order to prevent himself from snapping. He settled for changing the topic. "You left quite a scrap heap up there."

Z did a fake dramatic groan. "Oh tell me about it! I hate leaving such a mess around but I just had to help the nice Workers living here fix up their perpetually shut gates. So much misplaced furniture blocking it too!" Her cold smile returned. "The only way I could help was to use a little force... Screams of happiness for my assistance, I assure you."

Not waiting for a response, Z happily clapped her hands together. "Anywho, let's talk about all of you why don't we!?"

D bowed his head in agreement, hoping to get this over with quickly. "Serial Designation W performed with peak efficiency. I trust you'll find that-..."

"How's J?"

The squad leader's eyes widened. "...What?"

Z's expression grew more sinister as she walked up to D. "Y'know, your favorite pigtailed rival? How's she doing after the stunt you pulled with W?"

Stuck in between his 2 subordinates with M behind him, D started to feel claustrophobic. "I...She's..." He faltered as Z's eyes bore into his. He grunted. "How'd you know?"

Z's eyes flashed with intense satisfaction as she grinned. "I didn't actually. I just happened to notice your unusually high kill numbers compared to J's rather uncharacteristically low ones. The odds of you using W here to mess with her score was quite high, but thank you very much for telling me yourself."

D started to rapidly sweat as his fear gradually increased, M behind him doing the same. Thankfully for them, Z simply turned around and walked back behind her desk, taking a seat in her chair. "Oh man up, why don't ya? It's not like I'm gonna tear your head off... yet." They all sighed prematurely as Z continued. "Now then, I'm gonna need the two of you to keep W around for the next couple quarters. He seems up to par now but testing with him ain't complete yet."

D was about to give a reluctant grunt of agreement, but Z cut him off. "But THIS time, he won't be under your supervision. He's now free to go wherever he pleases in your territory. Oh, and his kills won't be added to yours, sorry." An amused and obviously fake happy smile appeared on her face as she finished.

D's eyes started glitching as his cracked visor sparked, but it was M who spoke up first. "That is so not fair!"

Z turned her head and glared. "Oh, are we talking about being fair now!? I think we've got ourselves a misunderstanding on our hands here." She smirked. "See, I happen to actually like Serial Designation J, old colleagues and all that. So yeah... what am I gonna think about the pair of brats who use MY soldier to interfere with her work? No-no-no, I think I'm being very generous right now."

M growled but said nothing as her squad leader could only slowly nod his head. "Fine." He muttered.

With a more earnest smile, Z nodded excitedly back. "Great to hear! ...now shoo." She concluded as she waved them off.

D bit his tongue and walked back upstairs. M following with whispered swears under her breath. Z hummed and turned back to W.

"Well? Go. You've got your orders."

W's red lights briefly flashed orange as he registered Z's command. "Affirmative." 

EXTRA:

A piece of art with all 3 Disassembly Drone leaders. 

Dror and Alice. While an interesting character in her own right, I found it a little amusing how her color scheme resembles Dror's. Red and orange isn't anything unique but, like I said, still amusing.

Chapter Text

One thing above all else was pretty clear to the orange-eyed Worker Drone named Dror, he is a very lazy robot.

Ironic, considering his kind were literally created to perform laborious jobs that humans didn't want to do anymore, but he supposed it was only natural. Having not been made during a time where he'd have likely been put to work the moment he was born, like his folks probably were. Not that he's ever known them to impart that confirmation.

For the most part, if given the option, Dror would almost always choose lazing around and doing nothing over any sort of non-mandatory job. Sometimes though, doing nothing just wouldn't satisfy his desire for entertainment. Sure, he always had his Worker Module™, but the endless watchable content it provided could only quell his boredom for so long at a time and he could only tinker with it for so long.

Dror could confidently say he wasn't a fan of this particular trait of his. In face, he was sure that had he been given the chance to work for JCJenson he would have been much more satisfied with how productive he could be. Alas, it would be quite the challenge to break a habit developed over the course of his life. Regardless, with his declaration to help J and her squad be the best they could possibly be, Dror decided it was finally time to improve upon himself.

And so, Dror had made the incredibly bold decision to forgo lazing about in his hut and instead chose to spend the night cleaning up his squad of Disassembly Drone's Landing Pod. It was a fairly basic and easy chore to assign himself, but he figured he had to start somewhere. Sweeping the floors, dusting off J's prized merchandise (all still sitting in a row on the shelf he had custom-made just for her. Honestly, he couldn't help but feel a swell of pride when he finished cleaning it) and finally wiping down the control console.

Speaking of which, Dror couldn't help but notice just how… useless the console itself was. He could tell even on his first day that the pod was quite damaged and probably wouldn't be able to fly anytime soon. However, looking closely, it seemed like the control panel didn't even meet the basic requirements a ship like this would need to take off and fly on its own, at least not without a huge overhaul and repairs. Not to mention the communication relay is completely broken, which he found quite weird considering they had supposedly been sent by the company themselves.

He figured that J probably had some other way to relay communications from JCJenson directly, otherwise how else would she know when they were about to be rewarded or when the quarterly results would be sent out? Perhaps squad leaders had some sort of device in their heads that worked as a replacement communicator? Who could say for certain? (J probably could, but she'd likely just dismiss it as classified information).

Whatever the case, Dror still cleaned the console as best as he could, wiping it down good with a cloth he made from the clothes of one of the Murder Trio's most recent kills. Once it was all nice and shiny, he moved onto the drawers under the dashboard. After giving the outsides a quick wipe, Dror opened the one on the far right to continue, only to stop as he noticed something inside.

Within the drawer is a thick hardcover journal, appearing very old and worn with a large letter 'J' engraved on it. Dror looked back and forth, seeing if anyone was around, before he made the reluctant choice to lift the book out of the drawer and drop it on the console. Wiping it off with his cloth, he carefully opened it up, the first page containing nothing more than what seemed like a detailed work schedule of sorts. Skimming through the next several pages showed similar ones all written out neatly by hand, along with listed rulings from JCJenson, ranging from general commonplace guidelines to specific orders given to Disassembly Drones. It took him a while, maybe longer than he would like to admit, for him to realize that he was looking through J's work journal or something to that nature. The dates listed on each page went back years ago, meaning she had to have started using the book around the same time her squad first arrived on Copper-9.

While a part of Dror wanted to shove the book away to avoid a potential breach in privacy, he didn't want to pass by the opportunity to learn more about JCJenson and maybe even J's overall ambitions, perhaps it would give him a better idea how to help out the squad? J was never a slouch for detail, every order and mandate being written out and explained to an exhaustive degree, and Dror found himself growing more invested by the second. He read for so long that he started losing track of time.

Eventually, however, the company policies and listings abruptly stopped and were suddenly replaced by… drawings? That's...huh.

Dror rubbed his screen to make sure his eyes weren't seeing smudges, but no, randomly after a page detailing schematics for a JCJenson branded coffeemaker was a drawing of what appeared to be a human girl with large black anime eyes and a maid outfit of sorts. But what really caught Dror's eye was the girl's twin-tailed hairstyle. Was this J's… human-sona? Or something?

If Dror wasn't invested before, he was double invested now. Quickly turning the page showed him a whole bunch of colorful and detailed sketches of humans and drones alike, some of which being rather gory depictions of prey she had likely caught herself, but all of them were way higher quality drawings than Dror had ever seen any other drones in his colony produce in his high school art class.

At last, however, Dror came across the most interesting page of all. It wasn't a drawing, schematics or anything related to JCJenson at all, it was a photograph taped to the paper. Judging by the worn out edges and sepia tone from an old fashioned camera, it must have been taken ages ago. A couple figures Dror recognized as humans, two large ones who appeared to be husband and wife, and a little girl who was posing with a quartet of Worker Drones wearing maid and butler attire, staring straight at the camera with muted expressions. At first Dror couldn't understand why 3 of these drones seemed so familiar to him, until the realization hit him like a missile. He didn't know how, but he was looking at N, V and J as Worker Drones.

Dror was so distracted by the revelation that he didn't hear the sound of J landing on top of the pod, nor her opening the hatch to poke her head inside. Noticing Dror, she was about to call out to him when she saw what he was holding in his hands.

Her eyes widening in horror, J flung herself down into the pod, landing on her feet with a loud CLANG that startled Dror right out of his seat and almost dropping the journal in his hands.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

Dror's eyes similarly hollowed in fear as he backed himself against the wall of the pod. "I… uh… I was just tidying up and… I found this and… I just got drawn in by all the official JCJenson info and-"

J barely heard him, quickly snatching the still-open journal off the ground and dramatically pointing to the pod's other exit.

"OUT! NOW!"

Jumping to his feet, Dror saluted so fast he accidentally wacked himself on the head and stuttered out. "Y-y-yes boss!" Before dashing out the door in a panic.

As soon as he was gone, J immediately looked down at the book in her hands, seeing the page open to the photograph of her days at Elliott Manor. She paid that no immediate concern as she quickly flipped through several pages until she landed on one in particular. She switched her vision to a black light scanner to check for any recent fingerprints that weren't her own. Thankfully, she found none.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief as she closed the book, J only then began to process the events that had just transpired. A huge wave of guilt suddenly washed over her as she remembered the nearly terrified expression on Dror's face she had just incurred to protect her secret, reminding J of her crazed state months ago.

"...Damn it J…" She admonished to herself for letting panic overwhelm her.

Wanting to correct her mistake as soon as possible. J placed the book down and climbed back out of the pod, scanning over the area till she saw the drone she was looking for sitting on a pile of scrap several feet away, just starring at the discarded metal in silence. Her guilt increasing, J extended her wings and flew right over to where he was and landed beside him. Dror once again jumped in place and looked up at her in surprise.

"Uh… h-hey…" J muttered, rubbing her arm in remorse. Dror, scared and full of remorse himself, didn't know whether to apologize profusely for breaching her privacy or ask her what was wrong. Before he could choose, J sat down as well before speaking. "Sorry I yelled at you like that, it was completely non-professional."

Dror couldn't help but blink in surprise at her sudden shift in mood, he had expected her to be furious at him for a while after that visceral reaction. Regardless, he rubbed the back of his head as he responded. "Er… right. I'm sorry I read your journal without your permission, I just thought it was a bunch of work info, I figured it'd be fine but…"

Dror tilted his hat so that the rim covered his vision, "Damn it, that was stupid of me!"

J cringed, comforting others was definitely not her strong suit especially given Dror'd usually is the one helping her. But J supposed she owed it to her small friend after going into such a mindless panic.

"No-no-no." She began, waving a hand in dismissal. "You were bound to see that thing eventually, I just overreacted big time because I wasn't expecting it to be so soon." By that she meant the work information. As it stands, Dror was well into being a reliable member of her squad so lending such important data seemed inevitable.

Dror finally snapped out of his guilt-ridden stupor and sat up at that. Was that supposed to mean she was already planning on showing it to him at some point or was he reading too deep into her words? Whatever the case, Dror finally found himself calmed after her reassurance. He almost gave a small laugh, finding it funny how now she was the one consoling him after he had done the same for her several times by now.

Dror looked back over to his squad leader as she sat twiddling her thumbs before looking up at him in turn. He decided to take his chances. "So… you're not mad I read the journal?"

J sighed. "While I would have preferred you request my permission first before choosing to browse through it, I can only blame myself for placing it in such an easy to reach area if I really wished for it to remain hidden. Therefore I will let this transgression slide."

The red-haired worker at last smiled with relief at the presence of her usual professional speech, J eventually doing the same. Things were rather awkwardly silent after that, both drones not exactly in a hurry to move from their seated positions beside each other on the scrap-littered ground, but neither really knowing what to say either.

Finally, having had enough of the silence, the Disassembly Drone of the duo cleared her throat, grabbing her companion's attention.

"So… I couldn't help but notice you saw that old photo of mine…" She said hesitantly.

Dror shot up at that, "Yes! Thank you! I wanted to ask! The three of you were Worker Drones once?!" He was quite thankful J had chosen to bring attention to it, he could swear his head would have started to hurt from the endless questions he had pounding against it from the inside. "I mean, it definitely makes some sense for N but… you and V too!? Like what!?"

As Dror clutched his head as if it was about to explode from the revelation, he was too distracted to notice J cringing, but the second he did he immediately calmed himself and cleared his throat as well. "Er… I mean, yes, I saw it…"

J suppressed a snicker at how quickly his demeanor changed. As tempted as she was to just brush this whole thing off and defend her secrets just a little longer, seeing how passionate Dror was about her backstory allowed her to settle on honesty. "I assume you still remember that human friend I mentioned I had once correct?"

The Worker Drone nodded in remembrance and let J continue, "Well you probably saw her in the photo just now, Tessa." J explained, looking down and twiddling with her thumbs once again. "Let's just simplify and say her love of drones also extended to repairing broken ones she found in the dump outside her house… I don't remember anything at all prior to when she found me rotting away out there but…" She looked back up at a very invested Dror and managed a sentimental smile. "I remember Tessa Elliott all too well."

Dror nodded, slowly but surely piecing everything together. "And am I correct in assuming that's how N and V came into the mix? Your friend Tessa helped them too?" Seeing J give a nod in confirmation, Dror felt he finally understood everything… until he realized he didn't in the slightest. "Ok but then… how did all of THIS happen?" He gestured to J's current body, as well as their general surroundings, clearly referring to her new status as a Disassembly Drone.

J froze at that, a flash of various memories once more danced their way into her mind, suddenly bringing brief but wince-worthy surges of pain. J put a hand to her forehead as she tried to remain focused. "Besides Tessa, I just have fleeting memories at best. The only things that remain clear are my service to JCJenson, getting modified and then sent off to this exoplanet. So I really couldn't tell you anything even if I wanted to."

Despite his concern, Dror decided to press on, eager for more info. "What about N and V? Or any of the other disassemblers? Do they…?"

With a groan, J stared at the floor as she tried her best to answer. "We're all in the same messed up boat, fuzzy memories and all. To be honest, I think i'm the only who even remembers that much and only recently. V has a few memories here and there while N I'm sure doesn't remember any of it." She scoffed, her hands balling into fists as her fingers dug into her palms. "I don't dare doubt the company, heck for all I know altering our memories only adds to our efficiency. But… damn does it get frustrating, having all the answers but being unable to piece them all together…"

J stewed in her inner turmoil, glaring at the ground until she felt something grip her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw Dror having scooted all the way next to her and sending her a look of genuine concern. "It's… definitely a lot, learning all of this at once. I mean, I in NO way can relate to having memories of some completely different life than the one I have. But if it makes any difference, any at all, I'd be happy to help you out with finding whatever answers you're looking for, you've got your own personal supporter in me." He said with a salute.

The squad leader chuckled to herself, lightly swiping Dror's hand off her shoulder. "How in robogod's name are you always able to take stuff like this in such stride? You, sir, are no common Worker Drone."

Dror let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head. "At this point my entire worldview's been shattered like three times already. I wouldn't be surprised if I was just used to it by now." Dror's face changed into a smirk, "But switching topics, those sketches of your's were absolutely pro material. You've got a real talent, J!"

J's face flushed yellow as she took the compliment in stride. "Oh… Why… thank you very much, I'll be sure to note my first ever review as an artist!" She said with absolute pride. J had never expected to actually be commended on her drawing skills, it was always seen as just another quirk of hers as a previously-disassembled drone and it was doubly pointless as a disassembler herself. Leave it good ol' Dror to once again lift her spirits in ways she could have never predicted.

Though just to be on the safe side…

"You uh… didn't happen to look any further than the photo did you?" Dror, somewhat puzzled but still in a supportive mood, choose to simply shrug like usual. "Nope, what you caught was as far as I got."

J let out one last sigh of relief she was holding in, obviously she knew her scanners were never wrong but she figured it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway just to make sure. "Alright, cool. That's cool, Dror...Cool."

Dror could tell J was hiding some amount of relief but didn't feel any need to push it, he just enjoyed the casual moment between him and J. Had anyone told Dror he would be sharing such a tender moment with a Murder Drone of all things, he probably would have knocked them upside the head with a wrench for mocking his anti-sociableness, yet here he was. Of course, as much as he didn't want the moment to end, he just couldn't resist…

"So…" His smile changed to a smug smirk. "I guess this all means you were once a shorty too, huh? " J's jaw nearly dropped to the floor in complete dumbfoundedness. Dror couldn't contain himself and started laughing hysterically at the look on her face.

"YOU LITTLE TWERP!" J shouted as she slugged him on the arm, though she couldn't resist a smile of her own as she did.

"OW! Hey! Is that any way to treat a fellow small fry!?" He responded with a punch to her arm as well. She too retaliated by shoving him to the floor, where he continued his cackling while lying on his back. The squad leader, despite her best attempts to remain professional, finally gave up the ghost and let out a fit of laughter of her own, although managing to stay on her feet. The two kept themselves in a laughing fit for what seemed like a minute at least before they finally calmed. J wiped a virtual tear away, never having lost herself in laughter quite like that before.

The Disassembly Drone checked her internal clock and saw it was about an hour before sunrise, N and V would likely be returning soon. She adjusted her tie and brushed her hair out of her visor, Dror subsequently sat up himself beside her, "I take it this means our little moment is done, boss?"

J nodded in the affirmative, finally getting herself presentable. "The others will be back any minute now and I still have some updates to make to our schedule, as I was originally going to do before… you know."

Dror stood up himself to his not nearly as tall height and rubbed his arm. "Right… I am sorry I looked in that-" He was interrupted by J's loudest scoff yet as she waved it off.

"Consider that transgression filed away, you're all good...fellow shorty." She said with a salute.

The small worker smiled with content as he saluted back, before abruptly yawning and realizing how late(early) it was. "Thanks boss, I think I'm gonna hit the hay now." As he started walking to his hut, he turned back to his superior-turned-friend. "I meant it too, I dunno know how I'm gonna help you find out the truth, but you can count on me to try my best. Night! Er… Morning! Tell N I said hi."

The squad leader waved to him as he made it to his hut and closed the door behind him. With her favorite subordinate gone, she sighed in happiness as she went back into the landing pod with a strange yet comfortable lightness in her chest. Seeing the journal still sat upon the dashboard as she left it, she opened it up and thumbed through the pages. Making it past all of her written work schedules and notes, back to the page she had scanned earlier.

She lightly blushed as she stared at her sketch of Dror, an uncharacteristically cool expression on his face as he adjusted his branded hat and looked off to the side. Despite herself, J couldn't help but stare at it for a few moments before moving on to properly updating her schedules.

(Art by softSynthetic on Twitter)

EXTRA:

In honor of V and her (potential) death, here's some art of V and Dror being casual with each other. If this is the end for her, then it was great while it lasted.

Chapter Text

While I don't have a new chapter today (it's on the way, I promise), I did want to show off a new poster for the story. I commissioned some kickass art of Dror from the artist "Sakaruchibi" and used it for the new main cover art. Along with that, I have decided to name the current arc of the story "On-Brand Loyalty: Prelude" which refers to the chapters from the beginning until the end of the 12-month storyline.

Hope you guys like the art, check out the artist's other works and look forward to the next chapter sometime soon!

Chapter Text

At the roof of the Corpse Spire's spacious interior, V slept soundly while hanging from her usual upside down perch. The sun had only just started setting, but V often preferred to rest earlier so she'd have all the energy she needed to focus on her favorite pastime of hunting helpless workers.

Unfortunately, said rest wasn't nearly as easy to come by these days due to...

"So you said you wanted to show me something buddy?"

V's yellow eyes sprung open as they quickly spotted the source of what awoke her down on the ground, narrowing into a glare as a result. What else would it be other than her 2 male squadmates Dror and N. 'Cause apparently that stupid worker is officially part of the squad, ugh.

She could just make out their conversation in her barely awake state, something about N having previously requested something from the red-haired worker.

It'd been three months since her attempt to provoke a confession out of the little drone and needless to say her opinion of him had not improved. As much as she wanted to simply ignore his presence, her squadmates spending so much time with the twerp left a void in her own interactions with them, as limited as they already were. Outside of when they ran into each other on hunts, V was almost always by herself now, which bothered her way more than she thought it would.

N no longer randomly tried to approach and talk to her, as if he had gained some clarity regarding her repeated dismissals of him (Naturally she suspected that had to be Dror's doing) while J spent most of her free time with the worker. The more she spied on that pair in particular, the more V noticed just how much J seemed to practically shadow him around whenever she got the chance. V had never previously held any real value in the idea of having "friends", but boy did it feel off for everyone around her to suddenly be all friendly with each other while she remained practically isolated. Hell even J and N's relationship had improved, she almost never struck or insulted him anymore once he started actually being effective for once, and she knew exactly whom the culprit for that was...

V stewed in her spot on the corpse ceiling, angered at her newfound loneliness and annoyed at not being able to do something about it without drawing the ire of the rest of her squad. So instead she hanged and watched as the worker prepared with building suspense to present something to N, the pair having constructed some scrap into a standing target before themselves.

"Cheeeck this out!" Dror smirked as he pulled something out of his pocket. The current item of interest was revealed to be... a ninja star. N naturally looked on with his usual goofy grin.

V stared with disinterest as Dror tossed the star at the scrap-metal target. His form was terrible, missing the stationary construct and sailing way past it. She was tempted to give a mocking laugh when the star whirled around and perfectly boomerang'd back into Dror's hand.

N jumped in excitement. "Holy crumpets! See I knew you could do it Dror!"

Dror smugly smiled from the praise. "Yes, well. It was an awfully simple task." He held up the star, showing off the orange LED light in the center that matched his own eye color. "See, this shuriken here's got a built-in router. So by connecting my own CPU to it wirelessly, it'll always return to my hand if I will it to." As he spoke, the light dimmed and went blank as Dror disconnected from it. He handed it to N. "Now you give it a shot."

As N's own visor became starry-eyed in excitement, V stared in confusion. "That twerp...made something to help N on hunts?" After half a year of freeloading, the squad's resident moron was getting some kind of personal upgrade from that social leech of a Worker Drone? Seeing N so happy caused a fire of jealousy in her mind.
Why though? Since when did she care whether N was happy or not? V pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind as she watched on.

Once he connected to it, the LED of the shuriken matched N's yellow eyes as he prepped his arm. Making sure his target was locked, N flung the star with insane precision as it struck the scrap metal in the "head". N grinned and held his arm up, causing the shuriken to wiggle out of the material and return to N's waiting hand.

"That is so heckin cool! Thanks buddy!"

Happy with the praise, the worker adopted a look of pride as he showed off a handful of shurikens out of his pocket. "What can I say? 'twas but a trifle for me-..AH!" N scooped Dror up in a big hug. Dror yelled out and started smacking him on the head. "N, PUT ME DOWN! YOU KNOW I HATE THIS KIND OF CRAP! I'M SERIOUS! DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

Laughing light-heartedly at Dror's rather pitiful slaps, N placed the angered Worker back on the ground. Dror dusted off his jacket and was about to throw a verbal jab when he was interrupted by an unexpected third party.

"Ahem." Both drones turned to see V standing behind them with her arms crossed and a disapproving look on her face. "That really the best you've got?"

Dror's eye twitched. "Excuse me?"

V scoffed. "You've been here for this long and the best you can contribute is making a dumb toy like that? I already had the bar set low for you but you couldn't even pass that." Were she being completely honest, V definitely wouldn't have minded having one of those shurikens to throw around but that hardly mattered to her when Dror was the one making them.

"Uh, so what?" The worker in question shot back. "N wanted me to make him something, and so I did. I can't hunt, so I'm helping in the best way I can."

With a glare, V commented. "Yeah, that's the problem. You can't hunt, can't prove any actual loyalty. You just take up space and time that could be better filled by anything else. You're a parasite to this squad."

N stepped forward. "V, I don't think that's fair to-..."

"I don't care what you think N!" She shouted impatiently. "This little jerk's only around because J just had to find some other way to get her praise fix from the company. The best he has to offer is looking good on her non-existent resume and running his mouth."

Dror fumed in anger. "Well by that logic, what does that make you? Just dumb muscle? All you do is kill things and complain about everything else, like when's the last time you've had an interaction that doesn't revolve around violence or eating? Maybe they shoulda just programmed an Anti-Drone Sentinel to hunt with the squad, at least it'd whine less."

In an impulsive moment of pure rage, V shifted her hands into claws and started stalking toward Dror. "Oh crap." Said worker quickly lost most of his nerve, taking several steps back while N jumped in front of him and shouted, "V, calm down!"

V stopped in place, contemplating her next move as N's hardened expression suddenly became fearful. She didn't have to wonder what caused his fright for long as she felt something tightly grab her shoulder, with a pained wince she turned her head to see J standing behind her.

"For once I agree with N. Go cool off outside V." J ordered with a cold glare, the leader's grip on V's shoulder tightening painfully.

Her grip only relented when V retracted her claws back, giving V the freedom to walk outside of the spire. As she growled and stomped through the snow, V could hear J "lecturing" Dror on picking fights with her, a hint of concern in her voice. Her tone alone was enough to let V know that J had taken her anger down a notch once her attention diverted back to the worker.

As quickly as it took V to lean up against the wall of a nearby building and pout, J and N had already began walking out to follow her. J reached her first, placing her hands on her hips with conviction. "Me and N are going hunting. You are going to stay here and settle whatever your issue with Dror is before we get back."

"What!?!?" V clamored in outrage. "You're taking that imbecile out for killing instead of me just because I dared to mess with your pet project!?"

J's eye twitched. "N may still be below par but he's been improving big time these past months, how do you think your performance has been V?" She glanced to the side to see N standing attentively close behind them, so she changed her voice to a harsh whisper. "Whatever your deal is, you've been slacking off lately. The amount of times N of all drones has had to pick off Workers you've missed is astounding. If Dror is this much of a distraction for you, then you work through it or I'll handle things myself."

As V's eyes widened at the threat, J took a step back and addressed N. "We're going now. Follow my orders and don't disappoint me." She said without looking at him, extending her wings and taking off, leaving N to look apologetically at V before following after J.

Pinching her brow, V looked to see Dror waiting by the entrance, sitting on a head poking at the base of the spire. She begrudgingly walked over and plopped down onto the ground beside where he was, crossing her arms and resuming her previous pouting.

An awkward silence followed, neither drone knowing where to start. Finally Dror couldn't take it and broke the silence himself. "Ok, how're we gonna do this exactly?"

V raised an eyebrow at him. "What, be nicer to each other so J'll be happy? Why don't you figure it out? You're the 'Murder Drone Whisperer' or something."

Dror laughed sarcastically. "Haha, hilarious..." He was about to dismiss the notion when he was suddenly hit with an epiphany, something J had taught him about rather recently. "How about... the interrogation game? I ask questions, you ask questions."

V's unimpressed frown only deepened. "That's all your tiny head could come up with?"

The Worker breathed in deep, keeping his anger in for the squad's sake. "Gotta settle things somehow, unless you got any better ideas that don't involve killing each other."

V scoffed. "Uh, you mean that doesn't involve me killing you? Hello?" She threatened, brandishing her claws.

Dror gulped and finished what he had planned to say, "...Likely followed by J killing you in retaliation."

V groaned at that before putting her claws away again and looking the opposite direction. "....Fine, whatever. Just keep it short."

"Three each it is then, that's a good number." Dror clapped his hands and rubbed them together to quell his nerves. "So uh, something simple to start with. How do you feel... about N?"

V immediately sent a violence-threatening glare in Dror's direction, practically causing a glitch in her visor. "Sorry WHAT!?"

Feigning a cough to hide his nervousness, Dror explained. "As a... fellow squadmate, I mean. I know very well of J's..." He waved his hand in the air while he tried to find the right word, "constructive issues about him as leader, but I can't help but be curious how his co-worker feels, personally speaking."

V growled and very reluctantly gave an honest answer. "He's... less annoyingly incompetent than he was before. I always kept forgetting he was even there on hunts back then." Dror was about to interject but V shot her hand up to silence him. "But whatever crazy thing you said to him apparently made him actually start trying for once, so a positive's a positive. Doesn't change how soft he is on his own, he won't improve much more without someone holding his damn hand all the time."

Dror internally took notes on everything she said. Now he knew he was right about N's lack of bloodlust being part of V's disinterest, so now it's just a matter of what he's actually capable of. Now he had a good idea of the next step in his "N/V plan".

He must've stayed silent too long as V looked over to him and grunted. "Okay midget, my turn."

Despite the jab against his height, Dror couldn't help but snicker to himself at the irony considering his prior accidental discovery of the squad's past forms. "Go right on ahead." He leaned back against the pile of bodies, placing his arms behind his head in a typical relaxation pose.

V smirked. "How do you feel about J?"

Dror's smile didn't falter as he shrugged. "At this point I can confidently say she's pretty much my best friend as of this moment."

A moment of silence occurred as V waited for him to finish speaking, only to realize he was already done. "Ahaha... no. That can't be it. You're seriously gonna say you don't have some weird suicidal attraction to her or anything?"

Dror immediately frowned and sat back up. "Okay, that was uncalled for." He said with a glare. "Look I ain't gonna deny I find her attractive but I'm not the kinda guy who cares about that and nothing else. Heck I'll just come out and say it, you're a genuine 10/10 in the looks department V, but that ain't gonna stop me from saying that as a person, you're both literally and figuratively a nightmare."

Turning his head away to avoid having to see the inevitably furious reaction on V's face, Dror continued. "J's the only person I've talked to who actually understands and agrees with me on things. I value her friendship waaaaay more than any sort of forced relationship I'd have with her."

V hummed in suspicion. "Mhm..." From what she had seen, J seemed far more into the orange-eyed drone than what she could reasonably constitute as a simple 'friendship', but that was for his ignorant head to figure out.

Dror took V's grunt as satisfaction with his answer, deciding now was as good a time as any to prompt the question he really wanted to ask. "Alright, next one. How much do you remember from before you got here?"

She shot him a look of mortification. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Dror scoffed, clearly copying J once again. "Oh c'mon, don't gimme that. You gotta know something about your life before being sent to Copper-9."

'Figures J would let that topic slip out, might as well give the twerp all our sensitive info at this point.' V thought to herself. She growled and crossed her arms. "A mansion, some humans we were serving, other drones being there, and something happening that leads to us training to be Disassembly Drones. That's all I remember."

Dror paid careful attention to her choice of words, finding it much more interesting just how much V didn't know. She didn't mention Tessa by name, so it could be only J who remembered the human specifically. There was also a lack of mentioning anything to do with being a former Worker Drone, so that memory still hadn't registered for V yet. Damn, guess he was gonna have to hold off on the "shorty" jokes for her.

He gestured with his hand for V to follow up with her next question, which she blurted out without hesitation and with much impatient anger. "How loyal are you really, shrimp? Forget that dumb hat, what's in all this for you?" Her eyes stared deep into his orange-tinted visor, as if she was trying to read his thoughts. "Don't you miss being around actual drones and not horrifying murder bots like us?" She produced a sadistic grin and activated her sideways X eyes for added affect.

All it did was make Dror laugh, annoying V further. "Oh please. The only thing I maybe kinda miss is the coffee, been craving that for a while."

V glared incredulously, trying to ignore how nonchalant his attitude continued to be. "You idiots consume human food products?! Are you trying to malfunction?"

He scoffed again and waved her off with both hands. "Not actual coffee! Ugh, right, I meant conventional oil, like from the ground. The others at the colony just called it that since it has the same effects on drones as coffee would for humans." V quirked a confused eyebrow. Dror sighed, realizing he was gonna have to go into further detail. "Ok, us Worker Drones run on synthetic oil, which is basically the equivalent to human blood, while conventional oil acts as an alternate method of recharge. So essentially, it's coffee for robots. Go ahead and add that to the list of things we've plagiarized from humans."

"Huh..." She had legit never realized there were different kinds of oil, she had always drank it all the same. At least she was getting some food for thought out of this, but regardless, her patience was wearing thin. "W-Whatever! Don't change the topic, just answer the question! Why would a random worker rather stay with a bunch of Disassembly Drones if not to try and trick them? Are you just freeloading to avoid having to work with drones who actually know what to do with you?"

"Alright already! Let me freakin' sum it up!" Dror yelled back, finally losing his own temper. He leveled his gaze toward the ground and spoke rather quick to get it over with. "I grew up liking Disassembly Drones more than other workers. I thought the lot of you were something cool to admire, everyone basically bullied me out of that, J's 'employment' helped me remember." He talked more hurriedly as he went along, "I'm really into the idea of working for JCJenson and, as unbelievable as it may sound, I really don't care at all that you guys kill other Workers. Call it morally corrupt or whatever but other deaths just don't weigh on my mind at all."

He glared back over to V. "That enough loyalty for you V? I really dunno what else you'd expect from me at this point."

V uncharacteristically sputtered. "I-I, uh..." Needless to say, that was way more information than she ever expected to get out of him. She had expected fumbled words, non-answers, some kind of confirmation of how shallow his 'loyalty' actually was. Not... that. A Worker quite more or less pushed into disliking his own kind, that was something else. "Y-Yeah. That's... fine."

Silence returned, the chilling sound of the wind being the only thing resembling noise. It was uncomfortable for both of them, but neither had much more to say. At least until V nudged Dror with her elbow.

"It's your turn isn't it? Thought we agreed on three each?"

Dror sighed reluctantly. "Oh alright." He had already asked all of the really major things he wanted to know, so for his last one he settled for a minor curiosity. "Uh...What's your favorite part of a Worker Drone to eat?"

V's expression blanked. "What?"

He groaned. "The morbid curiosity is KILLING me?!? I don't, and hopefully will never, know what we taste like and when I ask N or J they just get all weird and won't give me a straight answer!"

V couldn't for the life of her imagine what would compel him to be curious about THAT of all things, but it wasn't like she really had any good reason to avoid an answer.

"Limb joints. They have the best mix of metal and oil taste." She managed a smirk as she continued speaking. "Also J likes the head best, I overheard her talking to herself saying she thinks of it like eating their brain cells to get smarter. Let's just say I'll never let her live that embarrassment down."

Dror couldn't help but cackle at that. "Oh man, yeah that sounds like something she'd say to herself alright. Don't tell her but most Workers basically have negative intelligence. The fact I'm as smart as I am is a miracle."

V playfully rolled her eyes at his ego. "At last, something we can agree on." She paused as she came up with her own final question to ask, realizing she was now starting to actually feel positive emotions regarding the little twerp for once. Maybe one more quick test to see if he's honest? It's possible his appraisal of Disassembly Drones was just tricking her, after all he did say he just finds her to be some psycho murder machine. Hm...

"...Wanna see me blow up a building?"

Dror's eyes widened in surprise at first, before quickly lighting up in excitement.

J flew through the air carrying a pair of dead workers in her claws, another successful hunt for the books. She couldn't help but notice it had been getting easier to find workers to slaughter as of late, almost as if whomever had been intruding upon their territory had finally gone elsewhere. Perhaps things would finally be getting back to normal?

At least, as normal as a massive explosion coming from the direction of their corpse spire would be.

J's eyes immediately hollowed as she increased her flight speed tenfold. The cloud generated by the blast had cleared when she arrived, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw the intact spire a good distance away, but became less enthusiastic to see the pile of flaming rubble nearby where once was an abandoned building. She didn't have to search for the culprit for long as she spied V with both arms rocket launchers standing in the snowy street, a familiar hat-wearing worker beside her.

Dror had to recalibrate his visor after the huge shockwave of that explosion. When his vision was clear enough to see the burning wreckage left behind, he fist-pumped in excitement. "AW HELL YEAH, that was wicked!!!"

V produced an ego-filled smirk, clearly taking pride in her act of random destruction. It faded quickly however when J suddenly dropped in from the sky in front of them, dropping two dead bodies to her sides. The pigtailed leader looked over at the rubble and then back at V with an unimpressed glare. N also made his presence known when he landed as well, staring in awe at the carnage.

Dror had been keeping his lip zipped until he felt V's tail bump him on the back, he cleared his throat. "Er... Sorry, J. I just wanted to see how powerful a Disassembly Drone rocket was and I didn't want to have to go too far to find an acceptable target in case you came back and couldn't find us so... yeah..."

Despite him showing zero confidence in that lie, J quickly relented her glare before smirking and rolling her eyes at Dror. "Next time maybe try asking a drone who won't go absolutely overkill with it right next to our base, hm?" V looked away in embarrassment.

Dror rubbed the back of his head, surprised at J's non-aggressive demeanor. "Oh, I will be sure to do that next time..."

"Good. Your punishment will be going to search through that rubble on the off chance some unlucky Worker Drones got caught in that. A kill is a kill after all." She side-eyed N. "And don't worry, this doofus will be helping you out."

N snapped out of his stupor and saluted while smiling. "Sure thing J!" He went over and picked Dror up before flying off to the rubble, the shorter drone not screaming nearly as loud this time.

With the guys gone, J finally turned her full attention towards V. "Alright, spill it."

V only shrugged. "Me and the dork are fine now, if that's what your wondering. I won't go out of my way to mess with him or let his presence 'distract' me or anything if that'll make you feel that much better."

The squad leader could tell she wasn't just faking understanding, no forced formalities or anything. Good. "Well then. I'll be keeping my eye on you to make sure that rings true."

With an amused snort (the best she could manage with no nose), V couldn't resist teasing. "You mean when you're not too busy hanging out with the little guy all the time?"

J's eyes narrowed as she suppressed a blush. "As squad leader, I need to always be sure of my subordinates' wellbeing."

V's smugness only grew. "Don't recall you caring about me or N like that, unless it's when we're slacking. And it's not like he isn't always just hanging around in that shack of his and out of danger."

She stuttered. "I-I, it's because..."

"Not to mention how often you talk about him during hunts. If I didn't know better J I'd say you-..."

"I'm ending this conversation now."

Meanwhile, in an unknown bunker

One downside to having every door be automatic was that you couldn't slam them behind you as a form of stress-relief, at least not when there was nobody standing on the other side.

This was one of many things the purple haired Worker Drone Uzi was cursing out under her breath as she stomped into her gothic and moody room with the door jsut snapping shut behind her without nearly the amount of force needed to convey her anger.

She groaned and flopped onto her bed. "Doors this, doors that. I'm so freakin sick of it!" The angsty teen grabbed her pillow and screamed into it, throwing it to the other side of the room as she continued ranting. "Oh sure it keeps us all 'safe and secure' like that's gonna just make our problems disappear! Ugh, there's gotta be some way to beat those Murder Bots, then maybe dad would finally-"

The worker beamed in realization. She started laughing maniacally as she jumped off her bed and ran over to sit at her desk. Taking out a paper and pencil, she started sketching frantically.

"Photon converter as the base, build a frame to magnetically amplify the charge..."

After nearly an hour of doodling, Uzi held out and admired the blueprints she'd finished.

"Hehehehe, gonna take a while to gather all this junk, let alone put together. At this rate it'll take about..."

6 Months until the end of the beginning 

EXTRA:

Similar to the art I recently commissioned for Dror, I did the same for D and M by the artist "Marshimiiu" and put that art into another poster for this story.

Additionally, for some fun for my readers who are into the Dror/J ship, drew up a concept for a potential kid for them. This is Eta, a Disassembly Drone and aspiring leader of her own squad. Personally not a fan of "Worker/Disassembly Drone hybrid" concepts so instead she's just in a DD model unit. She possesses her mother's unshaken devotion to rules and order while also taking after her father's more lax attitude. Additionally her bow is the same as the kind Tessa wears.
Be aware, this is 100% non-canon so don't talk this as future material as much as just a possibility.

Chapter Text

The normally quiet and eerie halls of an underground bunker became bursting with activity as a dozen or so Worker Drones bolted through the halls, red lights tinting the walls and blaring alarms drowning out any sound. A single drone tripped and fell, taking one of his fellows beside them tumbling to the ground. The rest of the group kept on running and only a few moments went by before screams of horrible agony caused chills to course down their mechanical spines. 

One of them panicked. "Robojesus those monsters are super close!" 

"Shut up Barry! Emergency exits are just around the corner!" 

He was right, but unfortunately after turning into the next corridor, they're met with a large door with a keypad. One of the drones ran up and rapidly put in codes yet it failed to respond. The group of drones started hitting and pulling at the door with no effect. They're trapped. 

"Dammit! Someone must have already gone through and sealed it from outside!" 

"They just left us all to die!? What the hell!?!”  

"Come on guys we gotta find another way to-...!" 

Any arguing silenced immediately when the red lights and blaring alarms abruptly shut off, leaving them all in darkness, only lit by their various colored eyes, all of which immediately hollowed and turned towards a thud at the other end of the hall.  

At first, they could only make out a darkened outline due to the lack of illumination, but as soon as the familiar five yellow bulbs and sideways 'X' symbol appeared, the workers all shared a collective gasp. All hope of escape was abandoned as an elongated blade extended from their arm, illuminating everything with a sickening yellow glow. 

Serial Designation D glared with a silent rage as he brandished his glowing blade, longer and slimmer than any other Disassembly Drone could hope to achieve. As electricity began to coat the empowered blade, D took a single step forward and with a single swipe the majority of the drones in the room found themselves bisected by a yellow aura.   

Oil splattered across the corridor as the remaining Workers desperately clawed at the sealed door as D butchered more and more of the group along the way. Their numbers dwindled in seconds until there were only two left. 

One, in a last-ditch burst of bravery, jumped straight onto D's face, blocking his visor and grabbing his neck as if trying to strangle him, their fellow survivor dashing around past them. D barely acknowledged his attacker as his tail snagged and wrapped itself around the neck of the escapee. A simple yank and the drone's neck gave way with a CRUNCH, tossing their severed head through the air with a stream of oil left behind. 

D subsequently responded to his would-be strangler with a nasty chomp to their soldier, his fangs piercing straight through the metal and sending a searing pain for his prey’s body. As they yelped in agony, D grabbed their leg and yanked again while his teeth kept them in place, the result was the drone’s brutal bisection as the Murder Drone savored the resulting oil bath he so graciously provided himself.  

Throwing the pieces aside, D scanned around the carnage to see no drone left standing. Only corpses, spilled oil, and red “FATAL ERROR" messages on any visors still intact. D grunted as his cracked visor started to spark and he felt an unpleasant pain pulse through his body, the "HIGH TEMP" warning suddenly blared in his vision. He deactivated the power-supply in his blade causing the light to fade as it became just a normal sword and reduced his overheating. D glanced at the oil staining the weapon before giving it a long lick, the oil already cooling his systems down. 

D heard a faint panting and turned behind him to see one Worker Drone had indeed survived, halfway at least, attempting to drag their legless self to who-knows where. He rolled his eyes and strolled over, barely giving the drone time to even beg before he stomped their head like an egg. D grinded his foot against the remains, as if stamping out a bug. 

Turning back to face the sealed door, D ignited his blade once more and swiftly slashed a circle through the reinforced metal faster than one could blink before kicking a hole straight through it, letting a wave of chilling cold blow into the now vacant bunker. 

The remnants of another massacre awaited him outside, torn-up and leaking corpses littering the snowy ground. Sitting on a car nearby was M, digging through a drone's severed lower half and shoving oily metal into her mouth as if it were a bowl of popcorn. She then noticed her squad leader. “Took ya' long enough!" She shouted, revealing a lovely sight of a mouthful of drone entrails.  

D scoffed as M finally swallowed her food before hopping off the car and tilting her head to get a look at D's rampage inside. “Dang. This is the biggest feast we've scored in a while, lucky us." 

"We'd get more for ourselves if that damn mutt wasn't finding them first." 

His squadmate narrowed her eyes. "Ok geez I get it! Will you stop complaining about that already? Here I was hoping that mess back there would help ya’ blow off steam, yet your still being a hardass..." 

Kicking a corpse into a car, D growled. “I'd be less so if everyone else would just piss off! J and her idiots, W, Z ...I swear I'm gonna snap one day and rip them all to pieces." 

M gained a thoughtful expression. “Oh, can’t we keep one of J's lackeys? The one with those puppy eyes. He’s cute y’know?” She could feel D glare through her visor, so she waved him off. “Oh chill out boss, not like there's much in the way of options around here. J and Z are off the table, W’s a walking statue, V's a psycho, and you..." She squinted at D. "…Yeah no. Just no." 

D resisted the urge to strangle his only remaining squadmate. "...Just start counting the corpses already. I'm already sick of your attitude." 

In the middle of the frosted street, a bunch of offline Worker Drones were propped up in a mock standing position, only for a shuriken to jab itself straight into one of their visors, remaining in place as oil leaked out the wound. The weapon then wiggled its way free before launching itself back into the waiting hand of an enthusiastic looking N. 

Beside him was an unimpressed V, who plucked the ninja star out of her fellow disassembly drone’s hand. “You're not throwing it right. You have to let go at exactly the right moment, let the thing sail right outta your hand as you swing. Only then are you gonna do some real damage." To demonstrate, she linked the shuriken to her system and prepped her arm back, taking aim before swinging and letting the shuriken fly right as she exuded the most force. Her advice proved true as it sliced straight through a dead drone's head and stuck itself into the wall of a nearby building. 

V smirked as N politely clapped after her example. Normally he’d have been absolutely gushing over being able to interact with V for this long, but Dror convinced him to play it cool and ask her to teach him some of her special hunting methods. So, he’d get to spend time with V and become a better hunter, thus leading to more appreciation from J. Kill two drones with one rocket, if you would.  

N was reluctant to follow this advice at first, considering V typically preferred to avoid him for whatever reason, but turns out she was actually willing to help him out when it was related to the one thing she actually seemed to care about. Naturally he didn't ask her about it too often to come off as clingy or in constant need. Enough to seem as though he’s desiring honest advice would do just fine. Before N had pretty much always hunted as if on autopilot, letting pre-programmed actions guide most of what he did. But leave it to V to invigorate his passion for something he never thought he’d care for in the slightest. 

Needless to say, while expectedly unreactive on the outside, V was very surprised at N's sudden desire to be a true killer. Her surprise didn’t last long as she quickly realized the little twerp Dror had something to do with it, as with every change to her squad’s way of doing things for the past months, but no way was she gonna complain about this one. Obviously she had to feign some level of annoyance and reluctance to keep up her usual attitude, but V couldn’t help but actually feel real happiness for once in a long time being N’s murder guide.  

Speaking of which, N had successfully mimicked V's motion with the shuriken, and as she expected, the shuriken halved another worker head like it was a knife to butter. He jumped in elation. “Aw yeah! V you’re awesome!!!" 

"Naturally. Not so bad yourself Mr. Cinnamon Roll." She couldn’t resist a genuine smile of her own, his enthusiasm was actually quite contagious when it was about something she actually shared a passion with. The sound of someone knocking on metal suddenly caught their attention and both turned to spy J sitting up on a broken lamppost down the straight. V’s smile faded, suddenly remembering a certain something that had been causing her some actual concern lately. V turned back to N. “Uh… Keep at it, gotta go report to madame corporate." She remarked sarcastically. 

N gave her his trademark salute and went back to practicing his own abilities for once rather than pre-determined action, while V flew her way over base of the lamppost. 

The squad leader leaped off her perch and landed on the snowy street. “So how’s the hangout session going? I trust things are being kept work appropriate ?” 

“You’re one to talk...” V muttered under her breath as she resisted blushing, instead quickly feigning a cough to hide it. “I-uh ahem I gotta ask about you and the midget…” 

J adopted a blush of her own and gritted her teeth. If she had ears, they would have been steaming like a train engine. “For Jenson's sake V WE ARE NOT-..." 

As always, an embarrassed J is hilarious. “Hahaha, no. I ain’t bringing that up again boss." V waved her hand around to dismiss the idea. V had definitely taken quite a few chances to indulge in messing with J over her obvious thing for Dror. Her leader's poor attempts to hide it amused V to no end. Still, the topic at hand is still a serious one… 

"But yeah, about that...do we actually y’know, have a plan for the twerp? Like I’m not a nosey drone but I’m pretty sure you haven’t actually made any sort of report about him to the company yet and it’s been seven whole months so…” 

Despite her hesitance to keep talking about their littlest squadmate, J crossed her arms and gave as straight an answer as she could. "I will report Dror's placement in the squad as a loyal Worker Drone to JCJenson when I feel it is an appropriate time to do so. With their approval, Dror will either remain here to continue serving the squad or be picked up by the company for further evaluation." She then stared up at the sky and contemplated a new possibility. “Hmph, maybe they’ll even deem him so loyal they convert him into a Disassembly Drone. Imagine that." 

J couldn't help herself from getting lost in the idea, little Dror as a full-time Disassembly Drone. Him rocking their signature silvery hair and yellow eyes, maybe a more professional uniform (or the same one, whichever he preferred of course). She could only imagine how high their kill numbers would be with another useful squadmate. Most of all though, what would he look like if he was actually tall? 

While J was sucked into her daydream, V’s expression blanked, "A… Worker Drone… turned into one of us? J, that's-..." Her visor glitched as if she got a flash of a memory. She quickly shook it off. "...You're talking crazy here J." 

The statement brought J out of her fantasy, giving V a side eye. Unfortunate that her lack of memories led her to being unable to see the vision. "…We have to evaluate every possibility V, that's just how business works." 

V frowned as she prepared to state her real question. “Yeah, about that. I know you’ve got your hopes preeeetty high about this but uh… what if it doesn't work out? Like what if you do your thing with Dror and the company just... doesn't care?" 

J froze as her eyes hollowed out. "I..." Ever since recruiting Dror, J only ever gave any real thought to all the praise she'd get for presenting a non-rebellious Worker, and how the squad could benefit from it. But while she had the utmost faith in the company's judgement, there still is the very real outcome that JCJenson would believe none of the Workers on Copper-9 are worth trusting, no matter how loyal they seem on the outset, even if they analyzed their memory storage of Dror’s months of help. Sure, she’s a devoted disassembler and her squad regularly performed optimally, but would that be enough for them to take her word for it? 

What would happen if they denied it? Would they take Dror and pry him apart, try to figure out if there's some trace in his coding that shows some underlying corruption? Or would they just terminate him on the spot? All she knows is if that were to happen... 

“It’d be my fault...” J snapped out of it and addressed V with the most reasonable and leader-like answer she could think of. “Then we’d carry on with what we have.”  

V couldn't help but feel real concern at J’s sudden somberness. "Uh… maybe we….”  

Whatever she was about to say got thrown into the air by a crash followed by a flurry of snow and debris. Both girls shielded themselves with their wings before peeking through the blades at the sudden intrusion. Her eyes scanned the smokescreen and made out a figure brushing themselves off.  

"Sorry about all that.” A feminine but firm voice called out. “Meant for that to be more discreet. Aw heck who am I kidding? Me being discreet now, as if!”  

V growled and was about to pounce only for J to hold out a stopping hand, having recognized the voice. “Z?” 

Stepping into view, the shorter Disassembly Drone finally revealed herself, a bag of sorts slung over her shoulder so as not to interfere with her wings. “Well howdy, J.”  

As J processed the sudden arrival, V groaned. “Oh great, you again." Z looked smugly at V, before subsequently turning to N, who had just arrived to see what was going on, and granted him a salute as he stood confused.  

“It's been quite a minute Z, what’re you doing here?” 

Z nudged J with her elbow. “Oh y’know, I was just running some errands and your territory happened to be on the way. Couldn’t resist popping in to see how my old workmate was doing!" J smiled genuinely, something she hadn’t done for another Disassembler in a long while.  

N quietly walked over and stood by V, scratching his head. "Huh, it's been like… ages since she showed up huh?” 

V shot him a look, "Years, yeah. Robogod, do I hate that ‘little miss sunshine’ act she puts up.” 

The male Disassembler started to sweat.” You hate happy drones...?" 

"Pfft, no.” She said as she rolled her eyes and pretended to not see N’s relief. "I mean Z's act." 

He looked towards J and Z who are having a casual conversation, both sharing a few laughs over whatever they're talking about, "What do you mean by that?" 

V glared, "Z's always faking her attitude under that stupid smile." She grimaced, "Sure, I can tell she really does like J but it's clear to see when she looked at us." 

N frowned and nodded, noticing the same. He and V never interacted with Z that much, as rare of an occasion as it already is, but Z often avoided them and focused on J.  

As the squad leaders conversed, Z’s expression changed to one of sympathy, at least, as close to sympathy as she could personally manage. “So, noticed your numbers were dipping last quarter, that sure didn't seem like the hard-working J I know and love." 

J flinched. “That... was an unfortunate period. Someone was stealing our kills. But thankfully they realized who they were messing with and fled like the cowards they were. Good thing too, saved me the trouble of tearing them limb from limb!” She adopted a pride-filled smirk. “Anyways, there's nothing to worry about now, we’ll be back on top this quarter I guarantee.”  

Z gained a knowing smirk of her own and padded J's shoulder. “Well ain’t that great to hear. I knew you weren’t gonna let some randos hog your spotlight!” 

Both squad leaders laughed maniacally, in the midst of it J spoke up. “Honestly I would totally still be in that slump if it wasn’t for-...“ She immediately silenced herself completely before she spilled her biggest secret. 

Z, still laughing, questioned. “Wasn’t for what?" 

J quickly came up with an answer. “V and N! Yeah, we definitely owe our return to our proper rank to their sudden improvements, isn't that right gang?” She shot a desperate look towards her squadmates, who looked at each other in confusion over their sudden acknowledgement. J let out a growl. “Isn’t. That. Right. Gang?!?”  

The two’s eyes hollowed as they quickly and nervously agreed with their leader with panicked salutes. 

"Yep! That's totally right!”  

"Killing by the dozens!" 

Z finally ceased her laughing at the shift in tone. “Well then, great to hear my favorite workaholic’s doing just fine! Aw shucks, that just reminded me, I brought you a present!” She finally took off the bag around her shoulder and placed it down. "Got these as a reward for my own top of the quarter a while back, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out anything to use ‘em for. Maybe you three could make some use out of them somehow!”  

J picked up and unzipped the bag, revealing a faint green light to shine from the opening. She peered inside to see a handful of metal cylinders glowing with green energy. “Are these… power cores? Since when does the company hand these out for rewards?” 

Z merely gave an exaggerated shrugged. “Beats the heck outta me! All I know is I’m not nearly enough of a brainiac inventor to know what to do with these. So, I figured it was either let them keep hoggin up space that’d be better suited for snacks or give them to some folks who’re smart enough to give them a proper use. Know what I mean?”  

J was at a loss as to why Z of all drones was giving her radioactive materials, but she then thought back to how often Dror loved to tinker about with whatever he could find. Maybe a Worker’s perspective would do some good here. "Hm, I’ll see what I can do.”  

J zipped up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Well anyways, daylight is just an hour or so away. We’re gonna have to wrap this up and head back to our respective bases, wouldn’t you agree Z? 

With a disappointed nod, Z managed a smile. "Oh yeah, of course. Next time I’ll head on down sooner, assuming you’re not neck-deep in business mumbo-jumbo amiright?”  

J giggled to herself. “Oh Z, you know me all too well.” She then gestured towards N and V, who took that as their cue to fly off and head back to the spire. The leader herself extended her wings and gave one last smirk. "It was nice catching up Z, Send W and O my regards.” 

With that, she zipped off into the air. If she had stayed any longer, she would have noticed Z's smile twitch ever so slightly at the mention of her squadmates. She sighed and shook her head. “Man do I hate lying to you, but you’ll thank me later. Stay safe, J.” 

Her own wings deployed and thrust Z into the air, stopping to hover once she was well above the ruined city. Z scanned around until she spotted her target, a massive abandoned facility across from a frozen lake. 

"Now then, time to get some insurance of my own.” 

Once the squad had all returned home, J handed the bag over to N so he could be the one to deliver it to Dror. While happy to do what she asked, he was rather confused why she didn't want to do it herself. J instead stood up against the landing pod and witnessed the handoff. Dror was about as perplexed as J herself was to receive the energy cores, but merely shrugged it off and took the bag inside, presumably to set them aside and sleep for the day.  

J normally hated to deviate from her typical schedule, especially for something as crucial as recharging, but she put off sleeping in favor of sitting against the pod. Even several hours passing by doesn’t prevent her earlier conversation with V from rattling around in her head. ‘All this over a random Worker from a random bunker I found following a random explosion I happened to see on a random hunt...’ She thought. Had someone, anyone, told J she'd end up falling for one of JCJenson's designated corrupted drones, she'd have gutted them slowly and painfully. Yet there she was, head over heels for this little guy named Dror.  

Needless to say, emotions such as these were basically foreign for her. What started as morbid curiosity over a Worker still possessing loyalty to the company, led to huge respect when he proved said loyalty and a genius intellect to boot. Having someone around who actually knew what they were talking about was super refreshing, to say the least. Sure, J knew she wasn’t the only Disassembly Drone to share her incredible devotion, but meeting other squads was a rare sight, and likely for good reason. J only ever had N and V, and to say they were inferior in work ethic and intelligence in her eyes would be the understatement of the century. 

So to her, a change of pace was exactly what the technician ordered. She couldn’t have imagined she’d ever say it, but she had no shame in calling this Worker a friend. He remained quite the enigma, a true anomaly among his kind that he himself admitted to believing as well. (She took quite a lot of pride in how much her huge ego probably boosted his as well, he certainly wasn’t the scared little boy she mistook him for originally).  

Hell, the guy even made N of all drones be an effective hunter, something she had basically given up on a long while ago. Perhaps her threats of violence and termination weren’t the answer after all…? Nah, she was totally right about that.  

But then of course there were the times J basically drove herself crazy and none other than the ever-faithful Dror was there to get her back on track, and then do the same again when she relapsed. J couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten actual emotional support, well, besides her old friend Tessa of course. Z was little more than a casual work friend, V was basically incapable of empathy, and N… yeah no. Even when the many deaths of his fellow Workers were going on around him, Dror stuck with her and the company, and that, well, just pushed all the right buttons for her. 

J was never, ever one to give any thought to romance, she always saw it as just a lame phenomena that the sappier drones in Tessa's manor would attempt to partake in (and usually fail at) or maybe something Tessa herself would fantasize about after reading fairy tales. Often she’d put on fun reenactments of said tales with N playing the part of a dashing prince (even though J thought he’d be better as a jester) while she would get to be a ripping royal stud. They were good memories for sure, but she never saw the actual concept of romantic attraction as anything more than childish, until now it seemed. 

J shook her head out of her thoughts, a Worker Drone and a Disassembly Drone in a relationship? As if. Sure, there was no specific rulings from the company saying it was outright forbidden, and sure, she was once a Worker herself, it wouldn’t be that weird. But still, that probably wouldn’t help how… awkward it would seem. 

Then again, she may not even have to worry about that at all if JCJenson decided Dror was corrupted like the rest.  

V was right, there was no guarantee they'll see things the way J does. The company had humanity’s interests at heart above all else, as they should, and she and her fellow Disassembly Drones existed for a very specific purpose. What was one loyal drone worth when they had already set the order to terminate the entire population? 

Worst case scenario? They order J to do the deed, correct her mistake and kill the worker she’d let into their operation. She’d be very hard-pressed to deny the will of the company, but the thought made her feel noxious, betraying her orders or betraying Dror, both unpleasant choices. 

Or if another Disassembly Drone was ordered, would she just sit idly by. What if they tasked V, the one who’d be threatening him since day one? Z, who hailed humanity as much as J herself? Or heck even D, that arrogant and disgraceful excuse of a leader, OH IF THAT JERK EVEN DARED-...! 

J snapped herself out of her stupor, realizing she was losing her mind over this. She went to brush back some stray hairs when she saw her hand was a familiar set of claws. Her weapons activated purely on instinct, as if anticipating a battle against a non-existent enemy. J adopted a somber frown as her hand reverted to normal, her metaphorical brain and heart at complete odds. One still faithful and devoted to whatever JCJenson can and will ask of her, while the other guiding her to selfishly follow what she wanted and nothing else. Maybe she should just sit back and accept whatever happened, like when the Elliott’s had punished their daughter and she did nothing…  

No, there had to be something she could do to ensure things worked out for the better… J then glanced over at Dror's hut as a digital lightbulb symbol appeared on her visor, finally giving back her smile. If the inevitable was to be something she feared, she was going to grant her and her friend some tight precautions.  

It took several moments of yawning and stretching for Dror to roll out of bed when he heard a knock at his door. He already knew who was on the other side before even opening it. “Hey J. What's yawn up?”  

J smirked and crossed her arms. “How’d you like to start combat training?” 

EXTRA:

New poster featuring newly commissioned art of Serial Designation Z by Sakaruchibi.

Chapter Text

Blackness, an endless void, an eternal dream. That was all she felt, all she knew.

To be completely honest, she didn't know how she got here, in fact, she couldn't even comprehend a basic idea of how. Her mind continued to linger on it, yet she couldn't form any thoughts or express any emotions on it. She could call it "death" yet she still experienced some form of awareness, the realization of her helplessness and numbness. She could sense the coding surrounding her consciousness, the one true sign of her lingering will, and yet it remained inaccessible. Her body still existed but only seemed to serve as a useless shell, a cold prison left to rust and decay.

It felt like spending forever in a dark purgatory. How she wished she could simply end it...

"C'mon, c'mon work!"

Outside the void, she could recognize something handling and interfering with her slack and useless metal body. She couldn't see, hear or move but she could still recognize that she was no longer in the same place as before. Within the darkness, she couldn't tell how long it'd been. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Oh it doesn't matter...

"Just work with me here, hold on..."

Yet, for the first time in forever, she could feel... something. Her coding finally became active for once, filing directives and performing maintenance checks. Her memory files however were still corrupted, and she was still unable to move.

"There we go, yes, one more push. Please work! Please work! Pleeeeease work!"

Suddenly a shock of electricity zapped its way through her shell, finally invoking in her an energizing sense of feeling and cognizance that she hadn't experienced in so long as her power cells were charged to their max. She could feel her body twitch and spasm with electrification until she shot all the way upright, swaying from both the sudden movement and being unable to stand properly.

"YES!!" She could feel something grab her enthusiastically, keeping her steady. "Woah there, mate! I know being alive is exciting and all but ya' might wanna calm down there..."

Finally opening her visual optics and processing vision for the first time in ages, she recognized none other than a human being as the thing keeping her in place. A young girl to be precise, likely not even a preteen yet. Her form was darkened and hard to see, likely a result of having been unable to see in so long. Spying around the room, a metal box was left open with a multitude of tools inside placed next to a freshly used power generator on a table.

This human was her savior...

As she was able to stand normally, the girl took a step back to allow her room. "There we go, that all better?" The human giggled and turned to look behind herself. "See J? It wasn't a fluke the first time!" Behind the human was another Worker Drone, a female with pigtails and a maid uniform. The drone was crossing her arms, evidently sharing in the human's satisfaction if the smug smile on her face was any indication.

Her human savior turned back around. "Where are my manners? My name's Tessa. Nice to meet you..." The girl turned her head to spy the yellow band on the survivor's arm and the serial code on it. Tessa skimmed it to the end. "...Z? Yeah, nice to meet you Z!" Tessa knelt down and shook the drone's hand as if she had just been introduced to her. "Always glad to help a new drone get back up and running again!"

Tessa then gestured for her robot maid to approach. "This is J! She was the first drone I repaired, so guess now you could consider her your 'big sister' of sorts? Whadda ya say J?" J rolled her eyes at the designation, while Z configured her mouth into a smile for what may have been the first time in forever.

"...T-Tessa....Big sister...family?" She stuttered out, her voice box struggling to work properly.

Tessa smiled super wide and wrapped Z in a big hug, dragging J into it as well. "That's right! Welcome home girl!"

Z very much liked this new feeling of happiness inside as she returned the hug, virtual tears ran down her visor as the other drone, J, padded her on the back. "Welcome to the family Z."

At J's kind words, Z finally felt home...

Then the world grew dark, glitching away as the warmth and nostalgia vanished.

Exiting Recharge Mode.... Please Stand By.....

Z groaned in frustration as she awoke from recharge, lifting her head off her table covered with scraps and tools. She remembered spending far too long working on her new pet project that she ended up in a forced shutdown. Alas, quite a bad habit she'd taken to in recent years.

As she adjusted to the waking world and all her maintenance checks were completed, Z took a glance to the corner of the room, where her other, more red-eyed project stood idle, staring at her with his blank expression and non-emotive eyes. "W, be a dear and go fetch some fresh metal would ya?" Z commanded. If there was one thing she liked more than warm meals, it was working by her lonesome. "Take all the time you need. Have fun or something, I gotta work. Just be back before dawn, got it?"

"Yes ma'am." W mechanically swiveled on his heels and headed out into the night, letting the comfortable chill of the outside come in as the door was left open. Through the open entry, Z spied the distant silhouette of J's Decommission Tower™. Despite the meager space, Z chose her current dwelling to keep J's squad at a reasonable distance.

"Man, it's sure been a while since I've gotten that memory..." Z muttered to herself, reminiscing on her most recent dream. Her thoughts then turned to her fellow squad leader. "You remember that place yet J? Or are you just as ignorant as the rest...?" Sighing, she turned her attention back to her project. "Ah, doesn't matter, work to do."

"WAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT!"

Dror yelped as he was nonchalantly thrown through the air and landing rather painfully in the snow. He hissed and grit his teeth as he rolled over onto his back, a cold metal cylinder then poked his forehead.

"Bang." J called before taking away her gun hand and exchanging it back for a normal one as Dror groaned in defeat. "That's another death in under 10 seconds... Let's go again."

"J..."

"I said again."

Sitting up off the snow-covered ground, Dror reluctantly stood back up and got into his ready position. Ever since the proposal (more like command) that he undergo combat training, J had stayed behind every few nights to be Dror's instructor. If you'd ask him though, it was less training and just him being forced to get up for a nighttime beating.

When J beckoned gave him the go-ahead, Dror quickly glanced around and grabbed the arm of a deceased Worker on the ground next to him. He tossed it with all of his exhausted might at his sparring partner, which wasn't much at all as she didn't even have to move to easily snatch it with a single hand and throw it right back. The metal appendage bonked into Dror's visor and knocked him on his back once again.

Expecting him to get back up, J forced down some rising concern and instead expressed disappointment with a tilt of her head. "Dror, get up." Said drone merely groaned once again kept his eyes trained on the ceiling of the spire. "Dror!"

At that, Dror forced himself into a sitting position and glared. "I'm tired J. What's even the point of this anymore? It's not going anywhere."

J glared back. "We literally just started, you'll get better with practice. Don't be a wimp."

"Oh sure..." He muttered with a modicum of sarcasm. "Just a few more nights of the vaguest instructions possible and coming at me full force right away, that's sure to build up serious skill."

At his remark, J's eyes twitched in annoyance. "I'm gauging your current combat ability. If you started putting in more effort than you'd be improving."

Dror stumbled to his feet. "Come on, I'm just a lame Worker Drone J. Basic labor is all we're really good for, we don't just naturally have some latent combat talents waiting to be brought out." He glanced to his left into the visor of a decapitated head, seeing his own small stature reflected back at him. "Hell I'm not even standard issue, I'm a literal defect and beating me up all night isn't gonna fix that. I'd love to be able to fight but it just isn't for me."

If he were being 100% honest, he would've admitted to how she hadn't only been slamming him into the snow every night. She did always try her best to give advice or explanations of new combat techniques he could use. Needless to say though, she didn't seem to be taking his actual abilities into consideration, which to him didn't afford her any leeway, he just isn't in the mood.

Hearing Dror's self-deprecation, J frowned. "Ugh. We've been over this. Just because most of the Workers on this exoplanet are corrupted because of their-..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I got that part." Dror interrupted in frustration. "I'm talking about me! Like, just look at me, look at how small I am! My height is reduced and my physical abilities are lesser than the average Worker Drone because of that!.....I'm not up to par." He sat on a pile of scrap, wiping his visor. "Also why the hell am I sweating, who programed that!?"

J didn't exactly know what to say to....all of that, so rather than say anything she sauntered over and sat beside the scrap pile Dror currently resided on. Said Worker Drone simply grumbled and kept his glare trained on the cracked visor of the head nearby.

The silence persisted as cold air blew minuscule specks of snow all around them. As much as she'd usually wish to snap the silence in half before anybody, in this case she'd prefer to allow her small friend to compose himself and speak first. When he caught on that she had nothing to say, Dror finally spoke his mind. "For real J, what's the point of all this? Even if I wasn't absolutely hopeless at it, what would me being able to fight actually accomplish for you and the team?"

J merely scoffed, ignoring the 'why' of his question in favor of something else. "Oh please, if there's anyone I'd have called hopeless in this squad it'd be N. I'm sure it's hard to tell, weak as you sentient toasters are, but trust me, N was bottom of the ladder in Disassembly Drone terms. No real skills, no genuine killing intent, until his recent improvements he would only ever let his automatic combat protocols do the work."

As fascinating as the information was, Dror couldn't help but snark. "Oh wow, automatic protocols for murder. Yet another way I'm inferior to you guys..." J irritably smacked her tail on the back of Dror's head, causing him to wince and shut his mouth immediately.

"The point, Dror, is that skill isn't just built into every drone automatically. N had protocols to fall back on yes, but that didn't save him from being a useless idiot. Heck even V started that way until she started, ahem, getting into it..." J smirked. "We've only been at this for a few nights and you're at a very clear disadvantage. Not to brag... Alright somewhat to brag, but losing to me isn't exactly something to be so incredibly ashamed about."

Dror thought her words over. "You seem to be excluding yourself here, didn't you have to learn all this too?"

At that, J adopted her trademark smirk. "Do you know why I'm squad leader Dror?"

The red-headed drone looked around in confusion before answering. "Uh... because you're the most loyal and obsess- I MEAN dedicated member to the company?" He said with a nervous smile.

J rolled her eyes at his quick takeback before looking back into her fragmented memories. "That is part of it yes, naturally they would choose the most motivated and loyal drones for the job, but the other reason is more... practical, if you will."

Dror's eyes widened in some excitement. "Do you have a super secret special weapon or something!?"

J hummed at his rather adorable reaction, making the adult Worker Drone look more like a child. "Each Disassembly Drone has a company-issued standard arsenal, but we Squad Leaders have two special tools unique to us." She changed one of her hands into a three-pronged device. "Case in point, the EMP generator, for when any particular drone or even squadmate are giving us extra trouble that they shouldn't be. That, and, as you put it, a 'super secret special' tool that we can request individually. Though with that being said, even non-squad leaders can request one and be sent the compatible upgrades if approved. V once tried to convince me to request for bubble wands of all things, childish."

Dror listened on with a smile, he always loved hearing how the Disassembly Drones operate. The knowledge was both enticing and did a good job of making him feel special for knowing top-secret JCJenson information. "So what's your signature weapon then boss?"

J preened as she retracted her EMP. "I'm afraid I'll be keeping that as my personal secret for the time being."

Dror's smile dropped. "Ah, okay, fine." Releasing a disappointed sigh, Dror decided to get the conversation back on track. "So ok, what exactly were you getting at then? I'm the one who got you going on about the weapon thing, so besides that..."

With a cross of her arms, she continued. "Drones are selected to be Squad Leader because of specific traits they exhibit that others don't." J thought back to her memories of Z from the manor, how Tessa would often enlist that drone's help to repair other damaged workers. Z was just super smart in that way. "Having far higher functioning logic processors, to the point where they can do the work of a full-time JCJenson employee, as just one unrelated example."

Dror nodded his head in understanding. "Okay... so what's your advantage? Looking cute in pigtails?"

J blushed for a split second before feigning a cough and recomposing herself, recognizing Dror's comment as a tease and nothing more. "Ahem. No." She regained her ego-filled expression. "Back even before the days at the manor in my memories, I happened to have been designated as Tessa's personal bodyguard. So as you might imagine I was already quite combat-ready in most fields even before I got this position."

Dror's eyes widened. "So you were practically meant for this job all the way back from the assembly line huh?"

J flicked her hair from her face in a stuck-up manner. "That is indeed correct. I mean, it probably owed a ton to whatever or whoever I was before Tessa, but needless to say I was quite the asset to her safety back then and also right now, by taking care of all these dangerous corrupted Workers who pose a threat to humanity. Whereas V and N had to learn about their combat prowess, it didn't take me much time at all to adjust and get to hunting."

Dror couldn't be more impressed if he tried to be, but of course, he still had to point out the crux of his issue. "But if you're some super combat master, that means my chances of actually doing any good against you are all the way down in the negatives. Why don't I train with N or something? Y'know, more on my level?"

J scoffed. "N couldn't even teach his rock friends. Even if I oversaw the whole thing, I just know he'd make zero use of any actual training regimens or be able to convey them to you. He'd be too worried about hurting you. Besides, I'd rather not have two-thirds of our hunting party occupied all night." She hoisted herself up off the ground and put her fist to her hip. "If you're really lacking in confidence, I'll hold back for you. Until you're ready for something tougher."

Dror hesitated to answer, still rather unsure. "Well..."

J sighed and leaned down to place a hand on the smaller drone's shoulder. "Buddy, this is more than just for my personal amusement. You're apart of my squad, but that doesn't 100% guarantee your safety. Who's to say some uninformed Disassembly Drone caught you roaming unawares, or another rogue like F decides to break in here? Heck, there's plenty other dangers on this exoplanet possibly worse than us." She then put on the most serious face she could muster. "I don't want to see you getting hurt if it can be avoided Dror."

At her words, Dror couldn't resist the orange blush on his visor. "A-Ah... right, I understand." J smiled and held out her hand, Dror reached out to grab only for a small spark of electricity to shock both of them.

J and Dror both winced and looked at their hands in confusion. Despite their initial confusion, both decided to shrug it off as friction.

While he still felt very exhausted, Dror shot J a smile and shrugged, "Fine, how about this then..." He got up and began to hold his fingers, "One, no weapons or anything. We're keeping this solely hand-to-hand and that includes your tail and wings. Two, you could be defensive only. I can could barely fight one of my own kind, so that'd at least gimme something to work with. And three, can we only do like one or two more rounds tonight? Cuz I'm REALLY tired right now..."

J considered his requests and nodded, taking a step back and placing an arm behind her back. "Very well then. I don't usually provide handicaps but I suppose I can make an exception until you've gotten better. So, you ready?"

J held up her other hand once again to beckon Dror to attack, her typical smirk on her face as she taunted him. At the same time, moonlight shone in through the roof of the spire, reflecting off of her silver hair flowing in the wind. Dror gains a blush as he can't help but find the sight...rather beautiful. He'd be lying to himself if J's cocky expression along with her current stance didn't help make her more attractive... His eyes widened and he slapped his visor, rebooting his systems to get his thoughts all in order.

J tilted her head and put her hand down again. "Uh, Dror?"

He shook his head and let out a nervous chuckle. "Hehe, just uh... shaking off some fatigue! Yeah, let's start!" He stammered out, leaping to his feet and preparing himself for another round of being thrown around like a ragdoll. He couldn't suppress a strange warmth in his chest that just refused to vanish. A warmth that, unbeknownst to him, his sparring partner had felt as well.

N paced back and forth, shuffling out a straight line in the snow. He twiddled his fingers nervously, all the while V distracted herself in the distance massacring an unsuspecting group of Workers.

"C'mon N, you can do it..." He muttered to himself, nearly drowned out by the sounds of violence echoing across the street. "Yeah you tried this before and she just forgot who you were... but you're a way better Disassembly Drone now, she'll totally notice you! But Dror also said to be patient with her, has it been enough time? What am I gonna-..."

"N!" A voice right next to him shouted for his attention. N yelped and tripped face-first into the powdery ground, earning a lighthearted chuckle from V. She watched in amusement as he scrambled to his feet. "You uh... remember, name, my? Er wait..." As he struggled to find the words, V stood patiently by, picking her teeth with her claws.

N finally composed himself. "So, V." As soon as he gained her attention, he quickly lost confidence, his thoughts stringing themselves together. "So y'know... it's a beautiful night with this... toxic death storm and all... and since Dror and J left us to hunt by ourselves again... do you think maybe-..."

His squadmate cut in. "So you noticed it too huh?" N's expression blanked as V continued. "J and Dror, like, has there been a moment as of late where those two aren't in the same space? I'd assume the worst if I didn't already know that J's way too professional and Dror's too much of an idiot to even notice her interest."

N rubbed his head. "Oh yeah... those two, totally... they're..." He sheepishly asked. "Wait, are you saying there's something going on with them?"

With a narrowing of eyes, V answered. "N, when's the last time J has ever willingly spent time with us during non-work hours?"

He raised a finger and opened his mouth, only to close it when he gave the answer more thought. "Never?"

V smirked. "And what about our local midget drone? How often has she been hanging out with him? Hm...?"

"Oh that?" He said with a sheepish laugh. "C'mon V, she said it herself, at least one of us has to keep Dror in check for the company's sake, y'know making sure he's actually our friend and not tricking us or anything." His laughing died down when he saw V glaring at him with a smirk that reminded him way more of J than the drone actually sporting it. "Though uh... I guess they do kinda, I dunno, talk and laugh with each other a lot, which is way more than she's ever done for us... heck I think she even goes over to watch movies or something in his house and..." N's eyes hollowed once the realization finally sparked into his mind.

"You think... both of them...?"

V crossed her arms in satisfaction. "I dunno about the toaster, but J's definitely got something for him. Ironic huh? Oh if only he was smart enough to see just how out of character this was for her..." She said with a sinister smile. N knew most drones would be concerned for their or their friends' safety if another threw them a gesture such as that, but with how well he thought he knew V, it was so common with her it may as well mean nothing.

"So... are you suggesting we do something for them?" For all the help and advice his Worker friend had given him that led to V actually talking to and noticing him for once, N figured it was the least he could do to repay the favor somehow.

With a scoff, V replied. "Honestly? I think it's way funnier just seeing J squirm anytime it's even slightly brought up, her whole 'office-brand' worldview faltering just cuz of a crush. But y'know, you're free to do whatever. I mean I'm pretty sure J'd straight up murder you for even trying to insinuate it yourself. Perhaps pointing it out to the little twerp himself outta rattle some chains."

She then turned away, avoiding N's admittedly cute nervous smile and sweating as she called out. "Whelp, the sun's almost up, I'm goin back." With that, she took off, with N shaking his head to get out of his stunned stupor before following behind her.

Both Disassembly Drones remained blissfully unaware of the fact they had just been spied upon by a red-eyed drone hanging upside-down from the balcony of a skyscraper beside where they had just been conversing, a pair of worker corpses clasped in his claws. W's eyes trailed the two Disassembly Drones as they flew away. "Subject inquiry: Dror."

W searched through his internal database, the only contexts for that particular word he could find was the designation for a variant of light machine gun, and it being defined as the Hebrew term for "sparrow". His logic processors prevented him from concluding that the drones he had just listened in on had simply been discussing a gun or small bird. This "Dror" seemed to be a new squad member under Serial Designation J's leadership, one who had obtained the squad leader's personal interest.

Upon considering all the factors, W made the decision that this information would not be useful to Z as of this moment. While she of course loved to learn anything new about J's status, this "Dror'' could very well be its own isolated subject of information. With his limited mental freedom, W chose to withhold mentioning this in his daily report.

It wasn't very often he got to do this, but it was... rather fulfilling to find loopholes in Z's orders.

EXTRA:

New art of Serial Designation W by Sakaruchibi.

Chapter Text

A short Worker Drone maid hummed quietly to herself as she calmly strolled down a dimly lit hallway. The manor was devoid of its human residents tonight, its many drone servants attending to their duties while their masters were away on a public outing. V had been given laundry duty while J cleaned up the Elliot's bedrooms.

The glasses-wearing worker was the latest addition to Tessa Elliot's drone friends she repaired(or as her folks called them, "dumpster pets"), taken from her original resting place in the dump and put to work like her other friends J and Z. V had no idea how she ended up in such a sorry state of disrepair, none of the other drones did, but she was just happy to be among new friends and to pay back the young mistress for bringing her back up to function. So long as she did nothing to upset Tessa's parents, life was a breeze.

With a big handful of clothes in her grip, V entered the laundry room and deposited the load into the nearest non-occupied machine and let the cleaning process do its thing. As she waited she gazed out the nearby window, staring out into the dark woods surrounding the manor as the thunderstorm raged outside and pelted the area with heavy rainfall. V hoped her human masters had the foresight to bring an umbrella for Tessa.

"Hey look, one of the scrap piles walking around without someone holding her leash." V felt a tinge of annoyance as she spun towards the door of the laundry room, spying a pair of other Workers snickering to themselves just outside. She immediately recognized them as the personal servant drones of Tessa's mother Louisa.

Not long ago, the Elliot family were gifted a complementary set of "new line" Worker Drones for their many years as shareholders for JCJenson, supposedly as a way to test their "new systems" out. While they really didn't seem very different to V, these drones were meant to exude much more personality than the regular expressionless Workers previously employed at the manor. When Tessa rebuilt V and the others, she spent considerable effort on fine-tuning their emotion chips to provide them with developing personalities to call their own. As it turned out, the company may have gotten a similar idea and decided to make their own versions, including the ones V stood before now.

Unlike Tessa's own drones though, V would not call M and F her friends. She frowned and turned her head, keeping her eyes trained on the outside. F, the male drone who made the initial comment, scoffed. "Aw what? Does four-eyes miss the landfill?"

Beside him, M tilted her head, "What kind of robot needs glasses anyway, huh?" She stepped into the room. "It's suuuuper weird, isn't it?" F walked in beside her, both standing at V's shoulders as she continued trying to ignore them. "Must be why she got thrown away in the first place, what human wants a broken servant who can't even see?"

As both drones continued snickering, V grit her teeth. She liked to think herself as a polite and composed drone, but making fun of her vision is something that always drew her ire. Oh sure, they weren't wrong, her poor optics were a defect, but she sure as heck didn't need it shoved in her face all the time. F leaned in, amused by her barely concealed anger. "What's the matter? Got something to say, dumpster pet?"

When V muttered something inaudible, M sneered. "Oh I'm sorry, is your voice box broken too? Why don't you speak up?"

"There you two are!"

Both invasive Workers frowned and turned back to the door, seeing another of Tessa's reconstructed drones, Z, standing there with a loose and wrinkled outfit and quite the displeased look on her face

M rolled her eyes. "And the trash keeps on piling up..."

Z mockingly laughed, eyes darting away. "Funny you should say that... You see, there I was performing my duties just as usual when I came across the private workroom of Ms. Louisa Elliot left wide open and vacant, quite the sight indeed." Both F and M's eyes widened as Z continued. "Now you all know little ol' me, I just can't help myself sometimes. A part of the manor usually locked up tight? Well... just seemed like a neat place to explore, y'know?"

F dashed over and started shaking Z by her shoulders, "What did you do!?" Z pushed F off and adopted a sinister smile. "Oh I could go into all sorts of lengths to explain it but I'm thinkin' that time would be much better spent advising you to go make sure everything's all right as rain for when the mistress arrives, don't cha' think? I'm sure she'd be, shall we say, displeased to learn her private drones left their post to go goof off..."

The pair of M and F shot each other a panicked look before racing out of sight, shoving Z to the wall with a loud THUD, leading her to slump to the floor.

V, who'd been silently watching the whole interaction, ran over to help her up. "You alright Z?!"

The shorter drone laughed it off, coming to her feet with V's assistance. "Don't worry, it's all good. The looks on their faces was priceless! Priceless, I tell ya!"

V sighed. "I won't disagree but, what were you thinking going into the mistress's room? What if she finds out?"

Z waved it off. "Aw don't fuss, I didn't do a thing. I just knew those idiots left it unattended to go mess with us, so I had some fun with them."

V allowed herself a sigh of relief. "Well, thank you very much. I'm sure they'll try to get back at us but, at least I have some peace now..."

At her words, Z's smile grew colder as a devious look crept into her white optics. "Ya know... the mistress ain't exactly hard to... trigger. Heck she HATED being given those two in the first place. We could always... nudge some blame onto them to get them outta our hair a little more permanently?"

V paused in shock, realizing what Z was proposing. Giving Louisa a reason to dispose of F and M, just like she or her husband would do to many Workers that proved a minor inconvenience. The idea of those two thrown in the dump with matching FATAL ERROR messages on their screens, a dark part of herself wished nothing more than to see it. In the present moment however, V shook it off. "Nonono, that's too far. They're horrible but... I don't wanna take part in any drone's termination."

Z frowned in disappointment before shrugging. "Eh, your loss. They're just lucky J knows how to out-taunt 'em, otherwise I'd sick the mistress on them real quick."

Ah yes, Z's biggest defining feature in V's eyes, her huge devotion to J. Tessa's drones were all nice to each other, V would go as far to consider both J and Z her closest friends, but J and Z were far closer than either of them had been with V herself. At times, she couldn't stop herself feeling jealous, but she also knew she had no real reason to resent them for it. Maybe the next drone Tessa repairs could be someone V could be that close too...

"Welp!" Z continued, stretching her arms. "J said I was gonna need to help out W with whatever he's doing after I'm done with my chores so, I'm off."

V waved goodbye to Z as they walked away, letting V return her attention to the washing machines as its alarm signaled the end of its cycle.

Exiting Recharge Mode.... Please Stand By.....

V awoke from another dream, irritated and confused.

N's feet anxiously tapped on the ground, very invested in the newest series he and Dror had started. Said Worker stared at the screen with droopy eyes, exhausted from how long they'd been going but still trying not to fall asleep. N had been paying Dror visits quite a bit more frequently as of late. Ever since V's comments about the nature of their squad leader's interest, N found himself... not spying, observing his friend to see what he gets up too.

Also ever since J's more constant solo endeavors with Dror, the Worker had noticeably been more and more tired throughout the past weeks. Not to mention somehow gaining new recent scratches and marks on him from some sort of physical activity. Even his visor was faltering, the orange LED lights being dimmer than normal as Dror stared... and stared... right in his direction.

"N, can you stop staring at me? It's creepy."

N flinched and laughed nervously. "Oh! Biscuits! Sorry dude, I was just... uh... thinking! Y'know?" As Dror raised his eyebrow, the Disassembly Drone stumbled out a continuation. "Just stupid stuff, no need to worry about it at all." 

Dror pulled out his remote and shut off the Worker Module™, placing the control to the side and crossing his arms. "Alright, c'mon, work with me N. You got something bothering you? I'm your friend, I'm here to lend an ear and listen."

Rubbing the back of his head, N frowned and slowly answered. "Well Dror, you've been seeming... awfully tired lately during our hangouts. Can't help being curious what that's all about, you know?"

Dror nodded in understanding. "Let's just say J and I are working on a private project. We made a bunch of good progress so she ordered me to take a break. Nothing to worry about." In truth, Dror had indeed been improving greatly with his combat training, but after noticing how overwhelmed he had been getting, J had forced him to 'take some PTO' out of concern for his well being.

"Right, right. You and J... have been having... private time?" N cautiously asked, V's words still at the forefront of his mind.

Oblivious, Dror waved his hand dismissively. "We agreed it was better to keep this between us and around here, what J says goes so... my lips are sealed." He made a zipping motion across his lips as he said so.

N smiled nervously. "Yeah... About that... You know you could still talk to me anytime too, Dror. If you ever need a helping hand with anything?"

Dror tilted his head confused. "Um. Yeah...?"

Feeling a pang of anxiety creep over his questioning, N began to tap his thumbs together. "So uh... V and I were talking about you and J... About how much time you two spend together. Like, a lot of time." 

The Worker smirked and shot finger guns at the taller drone. "Eh! Look at that, V's got you as a gossip partner now. That's progress man, it's only a matter a time until you're able to get serious at this rate." He congratulated, clearly having overlooked the point of N's words.

Dror's lack of reaction aside, his jovial reaction seemed like a good sign. N gained his confidence back and smiled. "Like with you and J, right?" 

Dror immediately lost his smirk as his eyes hollowed out. "Excuse me?" 

N continued. "I didn't really get it at first but after V pointed it out it uh... really seems like you two get along great. Heck, J was nicer to you in the first week than she ever was to us for years. And I mean, you've been spending even more time with her than with me as of late... N-not that I mind of course!" 

Dror grew unsettled. "I uh... yeah that's true..."

Not noticing Dror's growing discomfort, N continued prodding. "So do you... like her?" 

Dror's leg twitched in place as his mind landed back on his squad leader. "I...uh...." He mumbled out. Ever since that one night where they discussed his training, things with her just felt...different. It was almost like he couldn't keep his eyes off her anytime they were together, and he found himself wanting to spend more time with her than usual, not just hanging out but just being...with her in general. What used to be just admiration for the nature of the Disassembly Drones and J's incredible devotion to JCJenson had changed into something far more personal, more... intimate? Was that the right word? Dror wasn't stupid, he knew how this all sounded. He could tell that, just maybe....

"Yes, I like J."

N leaped out of his chair and slapped Dror on the back, earning a surprised yelp from the Worker. "Heck yeah! Good for you man, I'm sure it'll be way easier for you than with me and V."

 Dread started piling up in Dror's mind. "W-w-wait...N-..."

The taller drone kept rambling. "You're already such good friends and you've got a lot in common... I hope we've been giving you guys enough alone time. Nah wait, I'm sure you guys are already getting plenty." 

The more N kept talking, the more irritated Dror grew. "N, stop it-"

"Maybe you just gotta be more upfront with her about it? J's always keeping things professional, so maybe all ya' gotta do is just walk up and tell her that you-"

Dror finally snapped. "N, STOP!"

N immediately snapped his mouth shut and froze in place, eyes wide. The red-haired Worker glared at him, his orange eyes brightened all the way up as a result of his anger. After realizing his outburst, Dror calmed himself with a heavy sigh. "...Sorry."

N rubbed his arm in guilt. "Er... no, I'm sorry. I got way too excited there..." His smile slowly returned, albeit much more softly. "But I did mean it, you have a real chance of-"

"I'm not gonna date J, drop it."

N's smile dropped. "What? But..."

Dror took another breath. "I appreciate your willingness to return the love advice favor, but J and I aren't gonna be an item, that's final."

The Disassembler slumped his shoulders. "You like her but you don't want to get together?"

"Of course I want to, but we can't!" Dror crossed his arms and aimed his gaze at the floor. "It's complicated, ok?"

N sat his chair and gave an encouraging smile. "I'm here to lend an ear, right? Was it something J said?" Recognizing his earlier mistake, N chose to take things slowly this time. Dror had already helped out N in many huge ways already, it was the least N could do to offer the same support in any way possible.

"No, J hasn't said a thing." Dror pulled off his hat, letting his messy red hair puff out free from restraint. "Heck I'm sure even if she did feel anything for me, she'd be saying the same thing too. Fact is, I'm a Worker Drone of Copper 9." He glanced at the yellow patch on his arm, "Oh sure I'm technically a member of the squad and you guys are my friends now but, that's not what really matters." Dror's gaze fixated on the JCJenson logo emboldened on the hat in his hands.

N frowned. "The company?"

Dror nodded in affirmation, keeping his gaze on the logo. "The company, yeah. Despite everything, none of us have any idea how things are gonna go once you guys finish the job. When I'm probably the last Worker Drone on the planet and J has to report to JCJenson..." Dror let out a hollow laugh. "Hmph...I'm hoping real hard I'll be accepted or even re-employed but...If I'm being realistic, I know exactly what else could happen too. And if J and I were to be super attached and the company found out..."

N put himself in Dror's shoes, imagining a scenario if V were to be put at risk because of a relationship they shared... "You don't want anything to happen to J because of you?"

"Yep..." Dror dragged his thumb across the logo before putting the hat back on his head, pressing his untamed hair back in place. He adjusted it rightly with a smile. "I'll respect whatever decision the company makes for me and will do my best to cope with it, for now I'm just enjoying my new life while I can. Even if it means never actually getting together with J, I'm gonna be sure to gladly appreciate having her as a friend."

N solemnly understood. If this was what Dror truly wanted, no way was he gonna betray that trust. Though in truth, he never even considered the idea of JCJenson doing anything like...that to Dror. It was one of those things that technically made perfect sense but was damn hard to accept, working for a group who'd be in their full right to do something horrible to one of his friends regardless of the circumstance. He couldn't help but wonder what it meant about how much the company really cared about both the drones they created....

V gazed at the stars, taking in their simple brilliance as she hovered high in the air. These dreams of servant drones and a mansion, what the heck was their deal? She remembered all those months ago when J proposed the idea of Disassembly Drones being converted from Workers, and these dreams (Visions? Memories?) lined up with it pretty accurately. Does that mean J has them too? Or even N?

Or maybe she's just losing her mind even more than usual.

Shaking her head furiously, V groaned to herself. "I'm too hungry to be thinking about this crap." Shifting her eyes from the night sky to the ground below, she scanned around for any signs of prey. Alas, it seemed tonight was a quiet one as she spent half an hour flying around without anything notable in sight. At this rate, she was half-tempted to head to the spire and mooch off one of her squadmates when she suddenly spied the open entrance of a bunker with quite a number of deceased drones lying about outside.

The oil splattered across the vicinity had long since dried out and wouldn't service her hunger by any means but V still ventured to take a closer look, undeniably curious whose handiwork it could be. As expected, a whole bunch more bodies lie inside the building as she went in through the open doorway, Workers torn and ripped to pieces in every way conceivable, and the familiar claws and scorch marks from missiles and laser fire to indicate it as the doing of another Disassembly Drone. Being the carnage-lover she was, V analyzed it all thoroughly before settling on an opinion.

"6/10, give it more personality next time." She joked to herself.

Spying around, V spotted a faint trail of oil droplets leading off into the hallway to the right, likely excess from whomever made this mess rather than a wounded survivor. V followed it with a shrug, humming tunes to herself as her tail swayed behind her.

V was forced to turn on her flashlight hand as she went deeper into the darkened complex. Eventually, awaiting her in the darkness of an open room was an unexpected sight: a hole in the ceiling which allowed a ray of moonlight to shine on what appeared to be a big puddle of yellowish liquid. V squinted hard at it, seeing melted metal scrap mixed with residue resembling nanite acid, having long since lost its glow from time passing. V figured that must be all it was and ignored it, shining her light further down the hall to see nothing special. Nothing but the basic entry corridors for a Worker Drone dwelling much like the kinds she'd been in (Read: "invaded') many times before. Peaking inside the room made it out ot be as basic a Worker Drone bedroom as she'd ever seen, with some occasional items of interest like a shelf of numerous hats. Actually, something like that started to remind her of...

"Fancy seein' you here!" V immediately swerved around to aim her gun at the sudden intruder. Leaning against the wall was none other than Z, the most nonchalant of smiles on her face as she completely disregards the weapon pointed at her. "How's your night been, V?"

Despite her suspicions, V relented and put away the gun.

"Terrible."

"Hmm, that's a real shame. Finger food?" From out of her coat pocket, Z pulled out a severed drone hand. Given the lack of polish and old oil stains, V quickly deduced she'd picked it up from elsewhere in the building. Rather than take the offering, V merely glared at the shorter drone, not trusting anything from the rival leader despite her hunger. Seeing her offer declined, Z frowned. "Suit yourself."

True to what she proposed, Z ripped one of the fingers away and tossed it in her mouth, chewing up the metal with very audible crunching.

V's eye twitched at the sound. "What do you want now, Z? This is twice you've trespassed in our territory."

Z waved her off. "Pfft, 'trespassed'? J and I are buds, consider this just me passing through. Not like I'm stealing your kills or anything." She turned and nodded at the acid puddle. "I'm gonna assume this wasn't your handiwork, amirite?"

V growled. "What makes you think it wasn't?"

"Because that disgusting pile of metal sludge is a fellow disassembler formerly knew as F. If you even remember who that was?" Z took out a severed Disassembly Drone tail with an empty vial and a bent stinger from her other pocket. "Found this next to it. Someone gave him a taste of his own medicine, quite literally. Last I heard J's the one who finished him off. Honestly though, hardly seems like her style. She didn't even use her own acid to do the job. Then again she also could've been having a bad day, being around F will do that to ya. Know what I'm sayin'?"

V continued to glare in confusion as Z tossed the syringe over her shoulder, not reacting at all as the glass audibly shattered. V's mind wandered, considering all of Z's observations. It'd been quite a while but she recalled her squad leader reporting F's demise... the same day Dror was brought to the spire...

V glanced back around the room and stared at the collection of hats. She mumbled, "Well, isn't that something...?"

"What is?" With Z suddenly popping in front of V's face, she flinched and instinctually jabbed with her tail. Dropping her smile, Z tilted her head and let the sail past without any contact. She shot an unimpressed look up at V who took a cautious step back. Z clicked her tongue and put on a smile again, albeit a tighter one than before, "I suppose I'll let that slide, sorry for scaring you."

With grunt, V crossed her arms and avoided meeting Z's eyes. "Whatever, just don't get in my face again."

Z rolled her own eyes. "Noted..." V merely stayed silent and tried not to let Z provoke any more reactions out of her.

"Welp, guess I'll be off then. Sun's comin up and I could use my beauty sleep." As Z turned to leave, she gestured to the remains of F. "Funny fate for that guy. Got so obsessed with oilshed it ate up his rational thinking. Fascinating how easy it can be to lose one's way like that." Z turned her head back to smile mischievously back at V. "He kinda did remind me of you, V. Of course, you know your place, don't you?"

V's eyes widened. "Uh, I..."

Z laughed it off. "Of course you do! You still got a solid head on your shoulders, unlike F." Her laughing continued and grew more erratic until she had to literally cover her mouth to get herself to stop. After composing herself she finally walked off and waved goodbye. "Nice chat, V. See you again soon."

As Z departed, V couldn't stop the feeling of impending dread that overtook her in that moment.

Chapter Text

If you think about it, being born is quite a peculiar concept to wrap your head around, especially when you're a sentient drone. One moment I was nothing and the next I was something, suddenly and with given purpose. With my creation came an instant flood of knowledge and self-awareness, I was a Worker Drone and my purpose was to be a loyal servant to humanity.

And yet, there was a twist. Once I had awoken for the very first time, I was told by my creators of my experimental existence, one that came with far more advanced and adaptive AI. A new specimen, if you will. I couldn't resist the feeling of pride that swept over me for I was unique, the first of a kind. Then again, me and the others were merely tests at the end of the day. After months of observation, we were finally granted a more permanent assignment.

"And here they are Mr. and Mrs. Elliott! Our finest line yet!"

I stood with four others, waiting patiently as our assigned caretaker presented us to our new masters. With testing concluded, us advanced "new line Worker Drones" are being provided to the many JCJenson shareholders as both a reward for their investment and for further experimentation. Our new home was set to be the mansion of the esteemed Elliott family, one of the wealthiest among all the shareholders.

Mr. James Elliott and his wife Mrs. Louisa Elliott exchanged a questioning glance before turning back to our caretaker. "We... humbly appreciate the present but, as we've already discussed, our manor has more than enough drones running around already. Of course our daughter Tessa wouldn't mind having more toys to play with but..."

His wife cut in coldly. "We're not looking to spoil our daughter."

Despite her icy demeanor, our caretaker continued his sales pitch with a professional smile. "Ah, not to worry! These drones are perfectly capable of being your own personal servants, able to tend to your own custom needs rather than being simple house maintainers. And of course these are the fruits of the company's labor, drones capable of more personality than ever before." Mrs. Elliott looked to cut in once again, so our caretaker quickly added. "We keep striving to improve our products as best we can and what a better way to show progress than to hear positive results, especially from someone as esteemed as your family. It would look rather bad on both us and you if there were any complications after all. So-..."

"Alright, alright!" Mrs. Elliott waved him off with a glare. "We'll take the blasted things! Just stop talking for Christ's sake!"

As her husband shot a look to her so fast he could've gotten whiplash, the JCJenson employee merely smiled wide. "How excellent! Then I shall leave them in your care, just be ready for regular check-ins every few months or so. Their data has already been registered under your name so feel free to leave with them. Have a lovely day!"

With that said, he slipped out the door out of sight. Mrs. Elliott rolled her eyes. "They seem to deliberately hire the most annoying riffraff I swear it."

Mr. Elliott, on the other hand, was staring judgmentally at us. "Let's rant about that later dear, what in blazes are we going to do with this lot? Surely we're not going to give Tessa five drones to play with, are we?"

She scoffed. "Pah! Of course not, she's lucky to have those vermin she pulls from the trash." She looked us over one by one. "We can't just shove them into performing basic chores either. If there's going to be anything to report, we may as well use them as 'personal servants' like that worm suggested." 

Mr. Elliott groaned. "Fine, fine. But I'm only taking one! Do whatever you please with the rest." With a quick glance at the five of us, he walked over and stood in front of me. "You seem quiet enough, you'll do."

I smiled and saluted. "Happy to serve, sir." His wife seemed rather... irate, this was far and away the better option for me. I felt sorry for whichever of my comrades had to serve directly under her. As for myself though, I was sure I could prove to Mr. Elliott that my services are worth appreciating in no time.

"Incompetent bot!"

Without warning, I'm smacked all the way across the room and smash face first into a dresser. A loud SLAM accompanies my impact as it rattles around, artificial pain raking through my head.

It'd been a few years of service now and Mr. Elliott has kept quite a consistent belief, that Worker Drones are nothing but disposable labor to be scrutinized at all times. It didn't take very long for that to become crystal clear as soon after we all arrived, he would casually offline drones for something as simple as greeting him "too loudly". All of us immediately understood what would happened if our masters were displeased and, unfortunately, Mr. Elliott was all too easy to earn ire from.

As I stumbled to a standing position, I made sure to not let out any sound at all, despite the pain I was experiencing. The master hated noisy drones most of all, I learned that very quickly as well. Glancing at a nearby mirror in Mr. Elliott's bedroom, I spied the big crack on my visor. It just kept getting wider with each reprimand...

Mr. Elliott was grumbling to himself, fiddling with the morning meal I had brought to his desk. "Unbelievable, what kind of servant provides a salad fork for their owner's breakfast?" He turned to me and pointed the offending utensil in my direction. "You better learn from this! I have no need for useless machines! Now get out, I can't eat with you staring."

I reluctantly nodded and speed walked out of his bedroom, stepping out into the hall and shutting the door behind me. Now alone, I let out a whimper and rubbed my hand over damaged visor. Wincing as a piece of glass fell to the ground.

That crack was a more... recent development, one thrown table ornament and I had a mark on my screen and it only got worse with the continued abuse. Mr. Elliott was hardly concerned, he definitely wasn't gonna bother spending the money to get it repaired. All I got was some weird putty substance slapped on to hide the crack whenever anyone from JCJenson came by for updates. They never stayed long, just enough for the masters to feign happiness over me and the others before leaving quickly.

The other drones sure didn't have to deal with this, two of them had just been relegated to doing general chores with the lesser developed servants. The other two worked under Mrs. Elliott and displayed an annoying superiority complex, always weaseling their way into staying on her good side.

Why am I treated like this... Why do they have it so easy?

"Hey there!"

I jumped in surprise, turning my head to behold another male Worker standing there waving and smiling. His expression turned ever so slightly more concerned when he saw my face. "You uh... doing okay buddy?"

If the display of upbeat emotion wasn't a big enough giveaway, the silver curly hair stuck to his head made it even more apparent. This is one of Tessa's drones, the daughter of my master.

In my time spent in the manor, I'd rarely ever encountered the young mistress. I would only see her when Mr. Elliott would have me walk alongside him, mainly at the lavish parties they threw, but we'd never interact. What was apparent to me was her incredible aptitude for robotics, having taken many expired or all but destroyed Worker Drones from a landfill and fixing them up back to fully functioning status. She'd even greatly improved their systems to exhibit a great deal of personality, much like I was intended to. If she ever willingly applied for a job at JCJenson, no doubt they'd hire her in a heartbeat. The Worker Drones they make would love her too, what with how much she pampers, talks to, and dresses up her own repaired machines, treating them as though they were actually her friends rather than her property.

Spoiled bots...

In the presence of Tessa's newest drone, I made sure to maintain a professional persona. "I am performing well. There will be no need to inquire any further on my condition."

The strange drone eyed me up and down. "You sure? Looks like you had a pretty nasty accident."

I reflexively covered my cracked visor with my hand. "Yes, it is nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

I'm not fine...

He relaxed. "If you say so. I mean personally, if I ever got hurt like that, I'd go right to Tessa for help. She's super good at fixing stuff! Just make sure not to forget to thank her after she does, or J will give you an earful, er, audio receptor-full? She'll yell at you is what I mean."

"I... see..."

Why is he still talking to me, just leave already...

"Oh, speaking of manners, I'm N!" He suddenly held out his hand and smiled a lot brighter, as if he were a star glistening with positive energy. "I'm still pretty new here so I haven't gotten a chance to learn everyone's name yet. What's yours?"

I blinked in confusion. "N-Name?" Outside of an identification code, I've never had one. I've never had a real need for one considering how often I'm kept in isolation. The only thing Mr. Elliott ever calls me is....

"Drone, follow me."

"Get me my breakfast, drone."

"Are you listening drone!?"

"Incompetent drone!"

"My name is D-..." I paused, not comfortable with my answer. It'd be like if a person named their child 'human', it felt so wrong. Tessa's drones were named N, J, Z, and V, not to mention several other drones who've been given similar single-letter names by her as well. I suppose.... "D. Call me D, please."

As if he hadn't noticed (or just ignored) my hesitation, N nodded happily. "Nice to meet 'cha, D!" He cheered as he grabbed and shook my hand. "Maybe we can hang out sometime! It sure would be great to have someone show me around this place more, y'know?"

"Oh, well...."

The door suddenly swung open behind me, widening both our eyes as Mr. Elliott stepped out. He adjusted the cufflinks on his suit as he exited the room, stopping as he noticed N's presence. He narrowed his eyes. "What in blazes are you doing here? My daughter should know better not to let her pet projects anywhere near my chambers."

N took several nervous steps back. "S-s-sorry Mr. Elliot. Tessa knows, don't worry, I was just saying a friendly hello. I'll just get back to chores see ya!" With that, he shuffled away with notable haste.

My master clicked his tongue. "Tch, noisy thing." Without even looking at me, he had already made his way down the hall and snapped his fingers. "Drone, follow."

Without hesitation, I rushed to his side and reverted back to my professional mask. Staying silent, even as I couldn't help but bitterly think to myself.

Don't call me that...

Exiting Recharge Mode.... Please Stand By.....

D shot up in an instant, digital sweat pouring down his visor as he took in deep simulated breaths. His eyes darted around in a confused panic, completely overwhelmed with what he had witnessed when electricity surged from his cracked head. With the briefest of glitching on his optics, D became stoic, as if a switch had just been flipped.

Whatever memory had caused his momentary panic quickly faded away, leaving him once again with nothing but a void in his mind with no recollection of any nightmare at all. This was not uncommon though, so D paid it no mind.

The disgruntled squad leader stretched as he removed himself from a plastic chair. He used to sleep upside down in his team's spire much like an average Disassembly Drone but with the emergence of these recent nightmares that always awoke him with a jolt, D would immediately plummet to the ground upon waking. Better to not start every day with a potential head injury, even if a random chair wasn't very comfortable. He took a look around the spire's interior and spied his sole remaining teammate M dozing away on an old and worn mattress.

"M, get up." She grumbled but didn't move, causing D to growl. "I said, GET. UP."

This time she waved her hand up without opening her eyes. "Five minutes, man."

D gritted his teeth at her attitude and stomped his way over. She barely reacted until she reluctantly dared to open an eye and was met with the incoming visual of D's foot. Too slow to react, M received a swift kick to the face that sent her flying through the air and straight into their already heavily damaged landing pod.

M cried out in a mix of pain and frustration as the impact left another dent on the ship, though it failed to compare to the cracks all over M's visor courtesy of D. She pulled herself from the spot she left on the ship, barely getting to her feet as she held her face. She glared at her so-called leader, visuals slowly coming back into focus as her repair nanites did their job. "WHAT THE HELL DUDE!?"

For a split second D grimaced at the damage he had left but stayed firm. "If I tell you to do something, do it. I have no need for useless machines." He averted his gaze from M, not willing to admit the vague feeling of guilt he carried for lashing out so violently. He turned around and extended his wings, "Just take some of our stock oil, heal up and get to work. We're already running low again."

While M sneered angrily, she walked off to get some much needed energy to boost her regeneration. Worker Drones had been in short supply in their territory lately, especially with Z's experiment stealing their kills.

D stared out the entrance to their spire into the vast snowy wasteland. If only there was some way to fully replenish their oil supply without any more wasted effort on hunting for real...

V smirked to herself as she sat atop the landing pod, casually observing the kerfuffle playing out toward the back of the spire before her and sipping through a metal straw implanted in a Drone head. J and Dror were in the middle of their early night training session. Well light is a relative term, given the clear disposition between J's unbothered stature and Dror looking as though he's ready to pass out. J stood in place with an arm held behind her back, holding out her hand so Dror could punch her palm.

V would never pass up an opportunity to stress out their resident Worker friend, so naturally she found the idea of him being thrown around by J very amusing... not that she couldn't see the merit in what they were doing though. Watching Dror had been rather pathetic, what with the orange sweat icons streaming down his visor and constant breathes he had to take despite not even needing oxygen, but the fact he was even willing to go this far showed quite a lot of moxie. Its not like J was just standing there as a punching bag for his weak fists, she wished to train Dror's accuracy rather than merely the force behind them, hence she was constantly shifting her hand's position so he would have to keep up to hit it... To V's own surprise, Dror was good at it, never losing focus and hitting his mark perfectly with only the occasional screw-up.

V's observation is cut short as N dropped to the ground to the left of the pod, landing with a painful thud and kicking up snow. She turned her head and eyed him down below over her shoulder. "What's with you?"

N quickly shot up to his feet. "Nothing! Just a weird dream is all, no worries here!" Whatever this 'dream' of his was, N was doing a very poor job of hiding the stress it was bringing him. V rolled her eyes at his attempts to look sheepish and naive. At this point, she'd come to find N's weirdness amusing rather than annoying.

Maybe she was going soft... problem for later.

"Whatever..." She turned her attention back to her leader's training, seeing Dror lying on his back in exhaustion. "Looks like J's playdate is over, took 'em long enough."

Usually this would be the point where N would make a dumb comment about how good Dror and J were getting along or compliment their training, or something stupid and nice. This time he was silent, staring at the ground as if deep in thought.

After a few seconds, he finally noticed V as his gaze flickered over to her person. He forced a smile. "Oh, uh yeah! Definitely agree with... whatever you said."

Before V could probe him for info, J walked over. "Alright gang, let's get to it. That door won't investigate itself." Pushing past them, she headed outside and took off into the air.

V groaned. "That damn bunker again? We've been prying at that thing for weeks now."

A short while ago, N of all people had found something that escaped their notice for years, a huge metallic door built into the side of a hill. Its black coloring kept it hidden in the dark of night and of course none of them could go out to see it in daylight, leaving its discovery to be a result of N happening to stumble upon it while on a walk. Unfortunately for them, entry proved nearly impossible between the virtually impenetrable material of the door and the surrounding environment making it too difficult to burrow around.

N padded V on the shoulder. "Cheer up. Can't hurt to keep on trying." V reluctantly smirked at his encouragement before noticing his hand remaining on her shoulder. She shot him a curious glance before N noticed and pulled away with a yelp. "Er... let's not keep J waiting then! See ya' Dror!"

With that he dashed outside and flew after J. V let out an amused chuckle before turning to see Dror approaching his self-made home. Just as he opened the door he looked back at V, sending a small wave her in her direction before disappearing inside to get some rest after his workout.

V allowed her gaze to linger, considering a rather outlandish possibility. If the raw power of three Disassembly Drones weren't making any headway with that door, then perhaps....

She scoffed as she made her exit. "As if!" Once she took flight though, the thought still lingered.

Dror collapsed to the ground like a brick, panting heavily as J eyed him with concern. Though they did not share the same overheating problem as Disassembly Drones, Workers were still very much capable of overexerting themselves and Dror's smaller frame didn't exactly grant him the greatest percentage of stamina. Dror breathed heavily to get some cool air into his systems as his body threatens to collapse.

J kneeled down to his fallen form. "Alright, I'd say that's a pretty good sign we should end things tonight."

Dror struggled to raise his head to look at her as his mind raced.

No, damn it! Get up, keep going! You can't keep relenting when it starts getting harder, you gotta' prove yourself! GET UP!

"...Y-Yeah, you're right. I'm beat." Dror answered before allowing himself to drop into the snow completely, the will to give up coming in first over his desire to be stronger once again.

YOU SPINELESS COWARD!

He rolled onto his back and lazily waved his hand. "Go on without me, J. I'm gonna go nap, happy hunting." J opened her mouth but just as quickly closed it and shrugged before walking off, already quite used to Dror's tendency for a quick surrender....as disappointing as she found it.

With his eyes trained on the spire's spiraling ceiling, Dror mustered up whatever energy he could to standing back up. By the time he was successful, J had already flown off. Dror started to head back towards his hut, lazily raising his hand as he heard N call out his departure. Once at his door, Dror took one last glance back to see V still waiting behind and looking in his direction for some reason. Not feeling remotely in the mood for any of her insults, he opted to give her a simple wave and quickly headed inside.

Finally in his living space, Dror immediately flopped onto his bed, body sore and mind exhausted. Training with J always left him tuckered out and disappointed in himself. But in the end, progress was progress. He didn't feel even a smidge confident about it but maybe if he ever found himself having to fight another Worker Drone, odds may be in his favor for once... maybe.

As Dror rolled to his side, he stared at a mirror J had brought him some time ago, giving the drone a full view of himself. Shifting to an upright position, he frowned at his reflection. "Yep. It's still me. Still small...still weak..."

Lifting his arm to eye-level, Dror stared at the yellow armband J had given him so long ago. When he had asked where she got it, J told him it was a simple replica of her own band with identifications that signified the wearer as part of her squad. J had made them herself just in case another Disassembly Drone wanted to have her as their leader and replace N, but they had more or less just collected dust over the years. At least they had eventually come in handy, one of them anyways.

Dror would always treasure it as a gift from his best friend, but every so often he would contemplate if he truly deserved it. J poured her metaphorical blood, sweat and tears into making these all for the hopes of more useful teammates. He never doubted she saw him as a friend (Maybe more...? No, never...) but he couldn't shake the feeling he was just a novelty and nothing more. Granted he made those homing ninja stars for N but it's not like he actually needed them, they were pretty much just toys. There was also the free therapy he provided on occasion but the last thing Dror wanted was to be relegated to a Murder Drone mental health expert, he wanted to be someone important, one who can help in ways that truly mattered and whose duties couldn't just be fulfilled by any old human.

J's training didn't help much in that regard. He respected the effort and he couldn't deny the results, but after a month or so with like 0.5% progress made since then, Dror just couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't worth it. His feeble body always held him back and he lost motivation quicker than J could throw him across the spire. At this point he even convinced her tp push training back to only once a week.

He knew that wasn't exactly fair to his squad leader, but there was only so much he could handle.

This long train of thought finally came to a halt when a surprise THUD sounds out from outside, the audible signal of a landing. Checking his internal timer within his orange HUD, it told him it'd only been a few hours into the night.

"That's... unusual." Dror noted. "Maybe there wasn't enough to eat tonight so they came back for an early rest or something?" He got up from his bed, stretching himself out to get over the strain of his training session earlier. Now that he had gotten time to destress, perhaps he could muster up the will to ask J if they could try again?

As he approached the door, he felt less inclined and instead considered simply asking J if she wanted to watch some movies or something else plain and casual. Really, he just wanted some kind of excuse to hang out with her more in ways that didn't involve pain on his behalf.

Just as he gripped the doorknob though, Dror immediately froze when he began to hear voices he didn't recognize, a pair of them.

"Geez, it's like a mountain in here, I knew she was an overachiever, but this is ridiculous!" He could recognize a feminine voice of a playful nature like V, but it was clearly NOT V.

"You already knew it was large as we flew here, you don't have to rub it in." A deep and gravely masculine voice replied, completely unknown to Dror.

He decided to take a chance and creeped his door open ever so slightly and peeked through the crack. As he focused his vision, he silently yelped when he spotted a pair of Disassembly Drones he didn't recognize inside the spire.

M took the first nonchalant steps into J's lair, hands behind her head and a confident swagger in her walk. Right behind her, D's eyes were darting around in search of a potential ambush. One of his hands was a machine gun raised up to be level with his vision.

His sole squadmate sighed. "Chillax dude, if they were still here they would've attacked by now. Just mellow out a little?" When she's met with a glare, M scoffed. "Suit yourself."

D grumbled and stayed on guard, his broken tail flicking around in agitation. Times were getting desperate for him and M, no thanks to Z, they needed a backup supply of oil and sticking to their territory just wouldn't cut it. Their best option was a big risk, sneaking into J's large and obvious lair to snatch some from their own reserves. At the very least, they'd be from Worker Drones already killed and reported, so a few missing would hopefully not catch their interest.

"All clear, let's just snatch what we need and get the hell out of here. The landing pod's the most obvious spot so let's-..."

"The heck is that?"

D groaned and rolled his eyes, ready to wave off whatever distraction M was drawing attention to, when he was forced to do a double take. A couple dozen feet next to the landing pod stood what appeared to be some kind of building or shed made of junk, incredibly rudimentary compared to all of the snow covered skyscrapers out in the city.

M tilted her head. "Since when do Disassembly Drones do arts and crafts out of junk?"

D walked up beside her. "Perhaps J made herself an office or something to validate her whole 'effective employee' schtick or whatever crap she's always going on about." He noted.

"Oh yeah, that tracks." M stroked her chin while contemplating. "You go look for that stash while I take a look-see here."

Before D could say otherwise she headed over in the shack's direction, leaving him to stare deadpan at her before scoffing and turning his attention back to the landing pod. As if there'll be anything worthwhile inside that oddity of a junk pile, probably just J's collection of worthless JCJenson merch. M would be able to sort all that out.

"WHAT. IS. THIS. THING. MADE OF!?"

V screamed out in frustration as she continuously slashed at the huge metal door with her claws. "COME ON ALREADY!!" She finally stopped and took several steps back with labored breath to see barely even a dent in the surface.

As she continued yelling her head off in frustration, J and N looked to each other from the sidelines. Their pigtailed leader gestured in V's direction. N recognized the silent command right away and ran over.

"Ok now, easy there V, how about we calm down and take it slow?" He yelped and ducked out of the way as a bullet whizzed past his head, a ricochet from V attempting to shoot down the target of her frustrations.

With her energy spent and bullet casings littering the ground, V groaned and headbutted against the door. "...Ffffffine."

J stepped in. "Finally, this was getting sad." She held up her hand and exchanged it for an EMP device, the customary signature squad leader weapon. "I'll give it a shock. If this fails, we're taking the rest of the night off."

"Sounds likes a plan J!"

"Whatever... stupid door..."

Dror did the only thing he could think of with such limited time, he jumped far and away from the door and hid under his bed like a scared child. Just in time for him to hear the approaching sound of crunching snow. Fear wracked his frame, terror unlike any he had experienced before. Well, maybe not since the day he met J.

With a forceful shove, the door violently swung open while Dror slapped a hand over his mouth to prevent any involuntary outcry.

"Geez, what a dump." M began thinking aloud. "You'd think an insufferable workaholic would be more organized than this. Guess ya' can't judge every egotistical book by their cover."

Dror peeked to see familiar hazard-striped pegs for feet pacing around his domicile. The yellow vial of the drone's stinger occasionally swaying toward the ground into his vision. The stranger explored Dror's living space with cat-like curiosity.

Needless to say, Dror had not expected today to be the day he would first encounter new Disassembly Drones since his recruitment, and he could tell for certain they weren't any friends of his squad. J especially would never allow anyone into her domain unsupervised (other than himself, of course).

He froze when the new drone stepped over in front of his bed, practically inches from Dror's position. The small drone was shivering from head to foot, he could barely control his panicked breathing. His three teammates were nowhere in sight and there was absolutely no way his mild fighting ability would be able to help him here.

It was finally time, this was the day he dies.

D hovered in the center of the spire as he thoroughly scanned the area. He already checked the landing pod very thoroughly, to no avail. There was tons of space around yet no place for storing bodies, besides the hundreds that made up the walls. So either they weren't even in the spire or that building of scrap was hiding more than it seemed...

"Damn it. Guess we'll have to-..."

Whatever D was about to say was left unsaid when he was barreled into by something too fast to see that knocks him from the air painfully onto the hard ground. With his mind still struggling to keep up, whatever had just hit him displayed a lack of patience when he was forced to roll away at lightning speed to avoid it slamming down on top of him.

Quickly taking out a gun, D searched around for his attacker but was unable to see in the flurry of snow. His opponent had no such trouble as D's weapon was shoved to the side before they grabbed his face and shoved to the ground face first. He turned himself over and prepared to shout out for M only for a black peg to come down right on his neck. His words died in this throat, coming out only as rasped sounds. When the snow finally cleared and he stared up at his attacker, he was meet with the furious glare of Serial Designation J.

M bashed the door off its hinges and immediately spied her leader's predicament. She held up her arm but before she could even think about what weapon to switch her hand too, she was met with nothing but searing pain as her entire forearm is sliced clean off by a yellow beam.

"AGH! WHO THE HELL...!?" She craned her head to the left to see the crazed smiling face of V with the familiar 'X' shaped LED in her eyes and one of her hands shaped into a laser cannon. M had zero time to process this as she was yanked by the back of her shirt and tossed to the ground next to her boss. The grabber, N, then took his position between the both of them and trained a pair of machine guns on the intruders.

"ARGH! THAT FREAKIN HURT YOU JERKS!" M barred her teeth, grimacing as she gripped her bleeding stump of an arm.

V sneered as she made her way over. "Oh poor baby. Gonna cry?"

D growled in M's direction, frustrated at how easily she was overwhelmed. Then again, he couldn't exactly say he did much better, if the foot J is pressing against his neck was any indication. Her yellow eyes bore into him, rage more than evident but not in her typical way. D has seen J angry before, at times almost in a tantrum but this is different. Within her glare held a confident aggression that left D unnerved.

(Art by @Neyro_76)

The drone in question had one of her eyes flickering into a miniature X as she spoke. "Serial Designation D, you have one chance to explain why in the name of employee termination I've caught you snooping around our base." J leaned her face down to his, pointing her stinger tail straight between his eyes which still remained in a defiant glare. "And if I don't like that answer, not even JCJenson themselves will be able to provide a detailed enough report of your remains when I'm through with you."

To substantiate her claim, J allowed the tip of her stinger to prick into the cracks on D's visor. Even the smallest trace of nanite acid burned with intense pain, even more so in such a vulnerable area. He winced and groaned out his answer. "W-We're just getting some oil. Hunting's been hard in our territory lately and we were getting desperate, so we were gonna take some of your leftover stock. That's it, nothing more."

J retained her glare, the two squad leaders of very different skill levels locked in deep seated contempt for one another, all the while acid continued to ever-so-slowly eat away at D's face.

"Well then, this seems to all be in order."

Having sufficiently mulled over his words in her CPU, J finally stepped off as D frantically scrambled to a sitting position, sticking his hand in his mouth and applying the coat of saliva to his face to neutralize the nanites, sweet relief at last. J glanced to her right, M had been silently seething on the ground the entire time under V's watchful eye. Good.

D got to his feet, doing everything in his power to suppress his fury and not make their situation any worse. He and M had neither the numbers nor the energy to do anything else besides follow along. Getting humiliated by Z was already bad enough, he did not need J adding onto that pile.

J spoke up. "Here's what's going to happen. You're gonna fly out of this spire and out of our territory, for good." She then grinned the kind of smile that did not betray any of the malice in her eyes. "As much as I'd love to send you away empty-clawed, you just so happen to have caught me on one of my better days. So if you're just so desperate to pull a stunt like this then I'll permit you to take what you need from the walls of our spire. Sure they're mostly drained and the oil is far from fresh but I'm sure it's better than nothing right? " Her grin deteriorated into a determined glare as she walked right up to her rival's face. "Just. This. Once. Never again."

D stared off to the side, refusing to look J in the eyes. "...Fine."

With a hum of approval from J, D slowly turned and started his march to leave. With the dispute seemingly over, M sighed and spotted her severed arm on the ground, taking a few steps toward it. It's stepped on by V's peg leg before she can reach for it. "You heard the boss lady. You're leaving."

M did a double take. "Can't I grab my friggin' arm first? You know how annoying  regrowing limbs is-..."

V cut her off. "Then suffer, talk it out with someone who actually cares."

M struggled to come up with a response, settling on huffing in anger as she turned to follow her leader outside. As both intruders passed N walking out, D noticed J's 'only' male squad member eyeing him warily.

"Got somethin to say punk?"

N's eyes widened. "O-Oh, nothing. Just uh, please leave faster before J gets mad, er... madder."

D glowered at the other drone before shaking his head, "Freak."

With the threat dealt with, N and J walked closer towards the center of the spire, closer to Dror's hut. The squad waited and watched as D and M pried off several corpses from the surrounding walls, J growing more and more impatient with each second that passed. With her arms crossed, she drummed her fingers against her crossed arms with stress evident in her demeanor.

After what felt like an eternity, the two had finally taken their meager offerings and flew off into the night. Without bothering to keep up her stoic composure, J dashed off toward Dror's hut, practically spinning V around like a top as she zipped past her into the open doorway.

"Dror! They're gone where are you!?!" She neglected to see any sign of the red-haired drone within the enclosed space, panic setting in until she caught sight of a small robotic arm shakily reaching out from under the bed and giving an incredibly jittery thumbs up. J let out a massive sigh of relief as she ducked to view Dror's wide and frightened eyes.

The Worker yelped in surprise when he was dragged from his hiding place in an instant and brought into a tight embrace by his friend. He shivered in her grip, prompting her to hold him closer. "You're fine now, you're safe." With slight hesitation and uncertainty, Dror wrapped his arms around J as well, helping to calm her own frantic nerves, even if only a little.

Outside, N was about to enter the hut himself but was stopped when V raised her hand. "V..."

She exhaled and looked away, ensuring N wouldn't see the concern on her face. "Let's just... give them space." With that, she walked away toward the spire's exit, followed slowly but surely by a reluctant N. He trusted J to help better than he could.

Back inside, Dror had finally started to calm himself down, comforted by the warm embrace courtesy of J's much higher body heat. Everything was fine, J was able to protect him after all.

"I-I think I'm better now, J. Those drones..."

She muttered in contemplation. "Serial Designation D and M, they're a different squad. They just tried to steal some of our oil rations, nothing else." She glared at the wall, picturing their faces. "If they're lucky, I won't get the pleasure of tearing them both to pieces for crossing me again."

Dror hazarded a weak laugh and patted her on the back. "Heh. Good, Good..."

Both stayed there in silence, happier than ever to be in each other's presence.

Hours later, the sun had risen and the squad were off to sleep, but little Dror was still wide awake. He's back again staring at the mirror, his pitiful expression staring back from the reflective surface. Dror's hat is thrown to the side and leaving his messy hair unrestrained while his orange tired eyes glare at his own image.

"Oh yeah Dror. 'I'll respect whatever decision the company makes.' Where the hell was that confidence tonight, huh? Almost disposed of like how the company would and I just... AGH!" He punched the wall, causing the mirror to shake around but remain in place. Mild pain surging in his hand, Dror fell down to his knees and stared off into space. "I can't do anything right, not when the time actually comes. All I do is cower and cry!"

His anxieties began crashing over him like a tidal wave of depression and fear. Dror grit his teeth nearly to the point of breakage and gripped his red hair in a tussle as if trying to protect himself from his own thoughts. His emotions spiraling out of control until suddenly, like a sudden bolt of lightning, he's hit by a strike of clarity.

"No wait, that wasn't the company's will. Those were just some... nobodies, who don't even know I exist." The Worker slowly stood to his feet, looking back into the mirror. "I still have purpose, I can still make myself useful. I just need to be the best I can be."

He smiled a slightly crazed smile to himself. "Wow, yeah, what a wake-up call! Guess a near-death experience is just what I needed! I can be whatever the heck I want! Something way better than regular old me!" He turned to his Worker Module™ placed in its usual spot in the center of the room. "Us Worker Drones are just like any other machine, full of all sorts of... settings and internal management. I can't believe I never thought of this before... What's wrong with literally improving myself?"

Finally Dror's eyes shifted to the other item left on the table, the severed arm of Serial Designation M. While in no way as useful as the components found in the head of a drone, this simple arm was basically an entire weapons arsenal in one, so much more to study... not to mention the opportunity it could mean for him...

His crazed smile only got crazier.

Art by @marshimiiu

Chapter Text

A week has passed since what the squad has dubbed "the incident", the day Dror was very nearly lost forever. J had taken some "time off" to calm herself from D's scandalous intrusion of their lair and from that day forward she would dedicate any resources possible into the incredibly important dilemma of securing Dror's safety. Hunting was assigned to V and N alone while J stayed behind at the spire to keep watch. The number of kills on their record decreased without her in the field but even that didn't matter as much to her anymore, at least for the time being.

On this particular day J could be found sitting crossed legged on top of their landing pod, her gaze trained at the main entrance of their not-so-hidden tower of death. She lazily twirled and clicked one of her coveted JCJenson pens in her hand as she kept watch. Occasionally her yellow eyes flickered to the side to gaze at Dror's small domicile, having rarely seen her friend leave it since that eventful night.

As much as his self-isolation concerned her, J thought it better to let him have his alone time. She'd already done her best comforting him at his lowest, anything more would basically twist the knife even further into his already wounded pride.

She couldn't help but feel... out of her league when it came to this new reality. J's fragmented memories had told her she had always been one tough drone, the personal bodyguard for her human master, but the role she was trapped in more or less led her to being a quiet shoulder to cry and not much else. She hardly, if ever, took the first step to provide healing and comfort, even if she really wanted too. J was an incredibly effective leader for a squad of vicious killers, but when it came to her abilities in personal matters, she was much more... unsure of herself, then she was about anything else.

In a moment of irritation, J's stinger banged against metal plating of the pod, several drops of acid fell down into the snow below her. The pen in her hand, once twirling, was now held in a death grip as J's digital eyes glazed over, her mind too distracted by her internal dilemma to keep paying attention to her surroundings. Even the cooling gusts of wind displacing her pigtails through the air and chilling her metal shell did little to gain her notice.

"J!"

The squad leader snapped back to reality, rapidly blinking her eyes out of their glaze as her mind readjusted to the world outside her thoughts. She peered down below to view the smiling and waving form of Dror. Seeing such a happy glow shining in his orange eyes again after so long, J felt a lurch in her core, almost like what the human's describe as a heart "skipping a beat".

J did her best to mask her emotions, clearing her throat and regaining her professional demeanor. "Dror, finally through with your time off?" She quickly shot a hand out to grab her stinger tail, her prior rush of jubilation having been causing it to unintentionally sway around.

Thankfully not noticing this, Dror let out a playful scoff. "As if I had that kinda time to kill, no I've actually been real busy."

Earning a raised eyebrow in his direction, J pushed herself off her seat and landed gracefully to the ground, flicking a pigtail off her shoulder. "Well then mr. hard worker, don't just leave me in suspense, here I was figuring you were still dealing with uh... you know." J's composure faltered very briefly as she remained cautious not to directly mention the incident.

Yet again, Dror surprised her with a nonchalant shrug. "For like, one day maybe. As if I was gonna let something like that keep me down, especially when I can make sure I never, ever need saving ever again!"

As her eyebrow raised again, J finally took notice of Dror's disheveled appearance. His jacket was incredibly wrinkled and messy, his hat barely hung onto its perch atop his scruffy hair, and his orange LEDs were a lot dimmer than she last remembered seeing them, a clear sign of a lack of recharge. Yet, Dror still smirked with pride and seemed chock full of energy.

J sent back a smirk of her own. "So what, there a secret project you're hiding from me? Another crazy invention of your's?"

Dror laughed aloud. "Perhaps..." He adjusted his hat so it fit more firmly on his head. "It's far from finished, but ah! I've spent enough time alone, time I'd... much rather be spending with you." He mused, rubbing the back of his head in abashment.

J blushed at the forwardness of his statement but quickly shook it off. "Cheeky. So how long will the show and tell have to wait?"

The Worker waved his hand around in a 'so-so' gesture. "Eeeeeh, can't really say, I've never done ANYTHING like it before but I promise you you'll be the first to know boss. Speaking of which..." He smirked again with a glint of determination in his eye. "Ya think we can get back to training? I've been itching for some exercise."

J had her reservations about putting Dror back to work again, especially so soon after the incident, but after mulling it over, she decided to comply with his request and they resumed their one on one training.

To... a surprising amount of progress?

J could hardly believe it but, over the course of their next sessions, the leader felt like she actually had to ease less on him. Dror's newfound eagerness to learn was definitely a factor, he had a drive to improve that he was unable to muster before, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something else was also at play. The small and feeble Worker was steadily improving his movement ability as if he had been given the finest tune-up in the galaxy. The change was still gradual in such small ways that J could barely notice at first, but their sessions started lasting longer and longer, as if Dror's own stamina had also been increased. Any damage and exhaustion he racked up seemed to hinder him less and less as he endured. Hell he even successfully landed a couple good (if minimal) hits on her during their offensive hours.

Within just a few short weeks, Dror had finally become just as physically capable as an average adult Worker Drone. Not exactly impressive compared to a Disassembly Drone like herself, but far surpassing the gasping, complaining drone adamant about his own clear weakness he was not very long ago. It was a bizarre, yet very exciting change. J felt more pride than she'd care to admit seeing Dror become so much more confident, and he clearly took quite a bit of pride of his own in his improvements.

One night, after a particularly eventful night of sparring, just when she thought they were done for the night, Dror once again displayed his fascinating ability to leave her completely blindsided.

"So uh J... how's about we change things up next time? Mind if I tag along with you guys on your next hunt?"

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

The school hallway, a space built to be bustling with activity, full of children darting to and fro from their lockers to their next classes, or just hanging around for fun, this is a place made to include the presence of beings along with it. Which makes the lack of said presence, rather eerie. What would usually be crowded and high-energy, becomes a void of nothingness and calm, a symphony of speech and sounds, now a foreboding silence. Yes, one would usually find such a dimly-lit formerly occupied place rather creepy…

SCREEEK-SCREEEEEEEK

That is, if the quiet tension wasn't ruined by the deafening sound of a chair scraping across the floor. One being pulled by a young drone barely even tall enough to match the chair he was pulling through the hallway.

Virtual sweat poured down his visor as he strained himself harder than a machine built for labor reasonably should, until he finally came to a stop in front of his locker, which had unfortunately been quite vandalized with graffitied insults and some rather… rude gestures. It also happened to be a solid head higher than the small drone, hence the need for a chair.

Sighing at the defacement he never bothered to remove, the drone stood on the piece of metal furniture and unlocked his storage unit. Inside the metal casket was the typical spread of school supplies, books, folders, pens and pencils, the works. Hung on a hook was his only item of personal value, a pristine conditioned JCJenson branded hat. After grabbing all the things he might need for the day, the adolescent drone’s orange eyes darted up to the apparel and stared. Despite his better judgement, he started to reach his hand toward it.

Only for his chair to be unceremoniously knocked out from under him, causing the young drone to fall painfully to the ground with a THUD. His school supplies scattered all about as he groaned face-first into then linoleum floor before he pulled himself to his feet. Once sure his visor was totally undamaged, he turned to glare at the offender.

"...Brandon."

A taller blue-eyed Worker loomed over him with crossed arms, donning a uniform commonly worn by human football players, complete with shoulder pads and helmet. He sneered. "Pipsqueak."

Rolling his eyes, the smaller drone startd picking up his fallen items. "Its Dror, actually. Then again I suppose if you haven’t learned my name after twenty times, maybe the twenty first will finally sink in-."

Dror face planted onto the floor again as the drone named Brandon kicked the back of his head. "Don't you sass me shorty." The taller Worker then took a seat on top of the smaller drone, who still lay face-first on the ground, resigned to the situation. "So here I was puttin away my sports stuff when I hear a REALLY irritating screeching. Lo and behold, I turn the corner and it's your tiny self dragging chair as loudly as possible." Brandon sarcastically explained, laying on the ground and putting more weight onto his sentient seat. "So y’know, it's only natural that, as an upstanding upholder of the rules, I just had to intervene. Ain’t that what your always droning on about? Staying loyal to the system, ain’t that right ya little corporate dog?” He glanced over at the JcJenson hat hanging in Dror’s open locker as he said this.

Before he could start snarking something else, Brandon grunted as Dror elbowed him in the side, allowing the smaller drone to push him aside and get back on his feet. He prepared to run but fell once more when Brandon grabbed his ankle.

Standing back up, Brandon glared in malice. "Ohoho that was a mistake twerp.”

Dror glared up at the wannabe athlete cracking his metallic knuckles together, the small drone's fist tightened as he wanted nothing more than to strike back. But he knew by now that doing so would only make things even worse. So the young drone reserved himself to take his needless "punishment” and hopefully get it over with sooner than later…

Exiting Recharge Mode.... Please Stand By.....

Dror jolted awake, shaking his head as he noticed he was stuck in a standing position. Evidentially, he had leaned against a wall and slept on his feet somehow.

An explosion in the distance drew his eyes to a nearby window, allowing him to peek outside to catch a glimpse of the carnage going on… as little of it that he could actually see. Between the smoke and snow flurries, the best Dror could witness were dashing silhouettes and flashes of light.

When he asked J if he could join in their nightly hunts, he had been hoping for something much more… exciting? Granted he wasn't in much of a position to fight, let alone kill other Worker Drones (yet), but more action than this would’ve been appreciated. Unfortunately, after the recent debacle with D and M, J was taking even more extreme caution than usual and kept him far away from any conflict. If he didn't know better, Dror would say she was starting to seem paranoid.

It was both comforting that J cared so much, and rather annoying because it left him with virtually nothing to do for extended periods of time. Still, there were the intended benefits…

"Hey man, you hiding here too?"

Jumping in surprise, Dror turned to see another fellow Worker standing several feet behind him, catching his breath. Dror could see an open door behind them and judging by fresh oil leaking out of a wound, he seemed to be someone who escaped the carnage outside.

Dror glanced to the ceiling above before turning his orange eyes back to the newcomer. "Uh… Yep. Just biding my time till those Murder Drones finish having their fun and leave."

"Cool, cool…” the drone finally stopped panting and walked over to Dror, pixelated sweat pouring down his visor. "I just barely got away. That freak with the pigtails just about got me but I was able to use someone else as a metal shield and got away."

Dror's eye twitched. "...Ah. Good job, buddy." He didn’t wanna lash out at this drone when he was supposed to be pretending to be on his side, but he took that remark against his friend harder than he probably should have. He really needed to get those emotions of his on a leash. "Way to stay ahead of the game..."

The other Worker smirked and crossed his arms. "Eyep, it's all about picking your battles and knowing who to take the fall. Say where you from kid? Maybe I could come by and teach you some more survival skills huh?"

“Well there goes any pretense of decency”. Dror mumbled aloud to himself, a visible orange tick mark appearing above his eye. He turned to the newcomer and smiled. "Say, would you mind stepping about 6 steps back?"

"Awfully specific… but sure." With no arguments, the Worker walked backwards, unaware of the tail with a yellow vial and stinger slowly uncurling from above. The red-haired drone kept holding up his hand, keeping the newcomer's attention, before snapping his fingers.

In an instant, the stinger tail impaled the drone in the back of the head, offlining them instantly with a gush of oil as their corpse was dragged to the ceiling and ripped apart with ferocity. Dror grimaced as a big splotch of oil landed on his shoe.

He grumbled incessantly and tried in vain to scrap it off by wiping his shoe on the ground. After failing at that, Dror simply sighed in defeat as the corpse of the unnamed Worker fell in front of him. "Good job, N."

As the male Disassembler leapt down from the ceiling, Dror began looting the dead. A bonus of joining these hunts, first dibs.

"The nerve of that guy, I swear. Insulting J like that, can't blame 'em I guess. My height? Hear it so often I get offended just for habit's sake." He continued grumbling as he searched the pockets. "But man, sacrificing your own friends to save yourself? Lemme tell ya' N, there's a special place in the junkyard for blatant traitors like that."

His eyes lit up as he pulled out a set of animal-shaped fridge magnets from a coat pocket. "Haha! Look at that! Had a regular addict on our hands, really went for the cheap stuff."

When no response came, Dror looked up at N to see him barely reactive. The tall drone just stood in place, staring blankly at his own handiwork. He only broke his solemn expression when Dror lightly tossed a pebble at his visor, causing him to flinch.

"Huh, what?" N looked around flustered.

Dror blinked. "You uh… you good man?"

"Oh yeah! " N scratched the back of his head, "Yeah I'm fine! Just some uh… weird daydreams is all, nothing to worry about."

Dror hummed in recognition. "Ah, yeah, I've been there alright."

N sighed in relief as Dror accepted his answer which wasn't entirely a lie. Lately his recharge dreams had been getting… stranger, not like the ones he had about going on dates with V or earning J's respect. They felt far more real, more grim. So much so that as much as he tried to not think about it and stay his cheerful self, they kept on lingering and refusing to be ignored. N would much rather keep it all to himself and not burden his friends, yet…

"Hey uh, Dror?"

"Hmm? Yeah?" Dror barely looked up as he went back to searching pockets. N twiddled his fingers. "So uh that whole thing about traitors you said…aren't you, y'know, kinda guilty about being against Worker Drones? Er, no offense…” He winced a bit, expecting some kind of backlash.

Thankfully Dror took it in stride, "I can see where you're coming from but that's not the same. People like this guy had bots he lived and worked with, a colony, and willingly stabbed at least one of them in the back for his own benefit," He looked back to N and twirled his hand in the air, trying to think of the right wording, "Me? I'd say it's more like I just stayed neutral until I picked a side. Granted I wouldn't have sold out the colony that I grew up with but Worker Drones as a whole aren't anything meaningful to me. You all though, this squad is much more important. I'd do anything for you guys, even V if she asks nicely."

N provided the most natural-looking smile he could in his current mood. "Happy to have ya' buddy.” 

The logic was sound and Dror’s friendship was great to have, but even as someone who’d spent decades performing senseless slaughter, the pride he displayed in his defection against his own kind did not exactly sit right with N. Dror had been a great friend to him, but what of other Workers? Was Dror truly the special exception J saw him as? The visions from his dreams lingered, ones of humans abusing drones in senseless ways, was that reality? Or some kind of twisted fiction?

"Score!" Dror pulled out a plastic bottle from the corpse, a colorful liquid swashing in it. A label read 'Antifreeze' on it. Dror smirked, "Now THIS is the good stuff, I haven't had a good drink for a loooong while. Workers don't need to consume anything but man do I miss it!"

The short Worker stared at it with temptation before slumping his shoulders with a groan, "Ugh, I'm technically on the clock. I'll have to save this for later," Dror put the antifreeze into his own coat pocket and then shot a glance at N, "Also none for you, I don't know what a drunk Disassembly Drone is like but I'm not letting you of all people be the guinea pig."

Not sure how to respond to that or understanding what 'drunk' meant, N just nodded, "Okay, sure."

Dror stood up and dusted himself off, noticing the sounds of a Murder Drone rampage has finally ended. "Seems like J and V wrapped things up, why don't you check it out?" Seeing N become reluctant, he waved him off, "Go on, I'll be fine."

N nodded, "Alright Dror, see you in a bit." 

As he walked outside and flew off out of sight, Dror smirked and turned back to the dead body. He pulled some tools out of his pocket and walked closer, "Now for the real prize."

Hours later, the subject of Dror's study laid before him on the table. A pair of detached hands and a wrenched-out CPU and internal wiring from the head unit. 

While Dror had plenty of appendages to scavenge from the literal tower of death that served as J-Squad's base of operations, taking them from fresh bodies would likely benefit the research process much more. It was all for the purpose of improvement, to become the best he could possibly be, and it was all centered around Dror’s current prized artifact, the severed arm of a rival Disassembly Drone. 

It took a long, long while to properly analyze it all, what with his make-shift data processor (the ever faithful Worker Module™) and a single limb not exactly being the most extensive peeks into the metrics of a Disassembler, but with a lot of time and patience, Dror was able to crack into some pretty useful information. The genius craftsmanship that went into these murder machines was incredible to uncover, the sheer power of their design, the strength enhancers that allowed for such raw power compared to a Worker even at peak conditioning. Simply incredible. 

The first thing Dror had taken note of was the strength enhancers, the makeup of Disassembly Drone bodies allowed for greater raw power compared to that of a normal Worker Drone even at their peak conditioning. Normal Workers were already superior to humans when it came to physical strength, but a Disassembly Drone may very well be capable of lifting a whole car above their heads. Paired with hyper regeneration via nanites that even repair clothing and artificial hair. It was clear to see how truly outclassed the Worker Drone population really was. 

But all of that? Pretty much stuff Dror had already come to understand. No, what really got his attention was the weapon functions, the key once again coming down to nanites. The Disassemblers didn’t merely retract their hands when switching weapons, they were rapidly broken down into nanites in the blink of a eye and reformed in a new predetermined shape as it exited the arm unit. The process was so inconceivably fast it'd be impossible to witness even with a robot’s heightened reaction time. He could easily see it be mistaken for the fictional "hammerspace" phenomenon if the explanation wasn't right there for Dror to study upon. . 

The temptation for Dror to amputate his own arm and stick this one on was immeasurable but he knew he had to hold back from being stupid. For one, the arm was way too big that it would topple his tiny self over in an instant, and of course there was the general principle that sticking other’s body parts on you was frankly… pretty freaky.

Most importantly though, it didn’t take long for him to find out that Worker Drones and Disassembly Drones are very much NOT compatible models. Similar appearances and coding aside, their systems simply don't link up properly in the slightest and the most Dror would get is either an oversized arm that doesn't function at all, or one that just rapidly swaps between weapons endlessly. Neither result was desirable. 

So Dror had decided on a different method of improvement, one that still required some more study time before he was willing to go through with it. The most important part being the mental preparation and the risks involved with doing it. 

As the small Worker twirled his wrench in his hand, he glanced at another particular object in his possession, an empty vial attached to a nanite acid stinger. 

Dror had asked if any of the squad happened to have any spare ones lying around, but lo and behold, his good friend N just ripped off his own and regrew it right in front of him. Dror was understandably… perturbed at first, but accepted the offering regardless. Thinking about it, having such a good friend in N made Dror happy. The kind of partner he could go to for anything.

Now that Dror had an equivalent to a syringe, one much more durable than the kind human medical workers would use for patients. Since Disassembly Drone stingers were tailor-made to contain highly corrosive nanite acid, regular old regenerative nanites should be no problem to fill it up with. It took some messing with their programming to make them function for a Worker Drone’s systems, but despite his fear it would be way over his head, Dror miraculously made it work.

The results worked to a surprising level of success.

Injecting only minimally altered Disassembly Drone nanites seemed like a stupid idea, one that'd either do absolutely nothing or cause him to go insane (as much as he enjoyed the common human fictional trope of the arrogant scientist going horrifically out of their depth, he did not want to fall victim to it). But thanks to the drastic changes he had made, the positive effects came very quickly. A sense of newfound invigoration Dror had never felt before burned inside him. Gradually he felt stronger, more durable, and possessed greater stamina than ever before. It was as if the injection jumpstarted his defective body's dormant functions and sent them into overtime like it was making up for all the years he spent having to deal with a frame at its most absolutely undeveloped state. 

A shame it didn't affect the systems involved with his height though....

It didn't matter though, the important parts were working perfectly. By Dror's own estimates, the benefits wouldn’t last more than a month before settling back around the physical peaks of a regular Worker Drone. That along with having Disassembly Drone data in his system should make him compatible for his project. Plus it didn't hurt that his improvements made it much easier to train with J, win win.

As of late there thankfully has been no negative effects but the true fruits of his labor are yet to come.

N stood nervously near the center of the spire, glancing between Dror and J as they conversed nearby. V had been ordered to hunt on her own to start the night while N was told to stay with J and their Worker Drone compatriot. J gave an impassive look to N as she spoke silently to Dror, who looked oddly excited this time, both standing far across from where N was told to wait. He was used to seeing his friend with an oddly upbeat attitude, but the energy around him tonight felt different...

The area they stood in the inner spire was also one of the messiest, where drone parts and scrapped machinery lay strewn about. N normally didn't spend any time loafing around that specific area, but that didn’t prevent him from noticing there were bigger piles of junk around than usual. 

"Alright, both of you pay attention!"

N snapped his eyes back towards J, noticing her standing back so that they now all stood in a triangular pattern. She had a serious look on her face. 

"The following will be a mock battle between the both of you, serving primarily as a test to see Dror's progress in combat training."

Eyebrows raising in surprise, N shot a confused look Dror's way. The Worker Drone simply smiling back. It was good to know this wasn’t something J had just sprung on him too, but he was not exactly into the idea of actually fighting his much weaker friend.

"You two will keep going until one of you gets a 'kill shot', meaning you’d be in prime position to deal what would usually be a deadly hit to any old worker. But I don't wanna see anyone dealing out any actual fatal injuries here!"

J then pulled out some ammo cartridges from her pocket and tossed them to N who fumbled to catch them. The label on them reads 'rubber bullets'.

"There will be no use of blades unless used in non-lethal manners. The same with any rocket or laser fire along with only use of rubber projectiles." J glances at the taller drone, "N, make sure to disable any of your automatic combat protocols. Not only would that be too lethal in this case, this is judgement of your own skills as well. It's all vital data gathering. Got it?"

N's eyes darted between the cartridges and his leader with a nervous look. "Uh, J could we chat for a sec?"

J raised a questioning eyebrow but groaned and walked over. Stepping up to him, she frowned and crossed her arms. "What is it?"

"Are you sure this is… safe?" N muttered, keeping his voice low enough to be out of Dror's hearing range. "I dunno if this’ll be a fair fight, even with all of these rules."

The squad leader glared. "I've been personally training Dror for months now. If I say he’ll be fine, then he'll be fine, I’d worry about yourself bozo."

"B-but-!" N was shut down when J swiveled around and walked back to the center, forcing N to step back to avoid taking a scratch to the face from her stinger. Looks like he couldn't get out of this one. So he retracted the rubber bullets through his arm unit and, with a few internal commands, they were switched into his machine gun and put on standby for reload.

Once back in position, J switched a hand into her own gun and aimed it into the air. "I will be evaluating both of your performances, regardless of the victor. Take this seriously." Her eyes darted between them. "Begin… now!" 

The echoing sound of the gunshot served as the starting bell. 

Dror rushed forward, using a surprising amount of agility as he ran straight towards N. The taller drone pulled out his machine gun and fired several non-lethal shots at the Worker, who rolled out of the way and used a pile of parts as cover. In just those few seconds, Dror had run across almost the entire space of the spire and reached N's own area.

Not noticing any more movement from his position, N called out. "Uh Dror, you really sure you wanna do this still?" His response came in the form of a metal object bonking him on the back of the head, causing him to stumble. N winced and looked down behind him to see a severed leg. 

N quickly noticed movement at the corner of his visor and turned to fire more shots. He was met with another limb to the face. Movement from another pile, more shots, bonk. Then again, and again. N was starting to get irritated by both the repetition and how fast Dror seemed to be circling him.

He could always dash over to his next position to catch him unaware, or maybe scrap those hiding spots with his superior strength. But is that too much? Could he hurt Dror by doing that? Would it even work to N's own advantage?

Shaking away all those unfocused thoughts, N deployed his wings and hovered into about a twenty-foot height into the air to calm himself. Being angry did not sit well with him, especially towards a friend. Scanning the area, N failed to spot Dror from behind any of the piles.

"Why don't we call this off and just hang out, bud? I don't wanna hurt you by accident..."

He failed to notice the sound of metal footsteps coming from behind until Dror shouted back. "Worry about yourself!” Dror sprung off the top of the pod and landed on top of N mid-hover. The drone in question jerked around in the air in surprise and panic as the smaller drone punched him in the head repeatedly. "This isn't supposed to be for fun! Take me seriously already N!" 

Shifting his weight, Dror forced N to steer himself straight down. Dror promptly leapt off and performed a tuck and roll on the snow as N crashed into the ground behind him. The small Worker took advantage of the airborne snow flurry to hide himself before N could recover. 

Lounging on the sidelines, J hummed in amusement at the one-sided affair and clicked her pen to write down notes. Dror was surprising her by a big margin. She had already expected better of him by how much he had improved during their sessions, yet the ability to take on one of her own squadmates, in a way that reminded her quite a bit of her initial encounter with the redhead drone against that waste of a Disassembly Drone F… The train of thought led her to narrowing her eyes at N. 

Said drone Staggered to his feet, feeling lightheaded. Not from the fall, he'd accidentally crashed into things enough times to have gotten numb to it. No there was something off. He reached and felt an object attached to the side of his head. "...Magnets?"

"Heads up!"

N darted his eyes up to see another metal leg thrown in his direction. He attempted to swipe it away but the pacifying effects of the magnet dulled his reaction speed, leading him to be hit in the face once again. Even the pain was lessened by the magnet interfering with his systems. 

Letting out an annoyed huff, N aimed his machine gun and started firing again. Dror only had to roll away from the first few shots before the Disassembler ran out of ammo. N opted to switch out his gun for a new weapon but with his lessened reaction speed, he noticed too late when something new was thrown at him. Some kind of metal cuff clamped around the end of the gun, just above the signature black and yellow tape on N's wrist. 

N blinked at it confused and attempted to switch the weapon out, but failed. The cuff perfectly blocked the opening, preventing his empty gun from being withdrawn. Not only that but it was somewhat heavy, especially with how light N's body felt at the moment. 

His worry would have to wait though as Dror appeared in his vision once again, this time dashing directly at him. N made a move to grab him with his free hand but the Worker slid and avoided it, sweeping into N's feet along the way and toppling him to the ground. Seizing the moment, Dror pulled out even more magnets from his pocket and tossed them, each one latching onto N’s head. 

Getting to his feet, Dror approached while N physically recoiled from more magnetic dulling. From his other pocket Dror pulled out a small disk, hitting a button and turning on a yellow LED on it. He gave it a toss and watched it latch onto N's other wrist, preventing him from withdrawing his hand for any tools or weapons.  

Seeing N start to compose himself, Dror then sprinted right up to N and grabbed his face to slam his head back into the ground. Dror ignored N's groaning and reached out to grab ahold of N's tail by the glowing yellow vial, keeping a tight grip so it couldn’t be pulled back by N in his weakened state.

N lifted his head again, fighting through the strangely calming yet sickly veil wrapping his mind. His eyes then looked up and widened. 

He was very much used to how intimidating him and his fellow Disassembly Drones were. Seeing V and J reminded this to him constantly. Sometimes N would even catch himself in the mirror with his "scary face" and figured it would probably be pretty freaky to see if you were small and helpless though it was kinda cool.

Someone he had never expected to find intimidating was his passive friend Dror, killing intent very evident on his face as his right eye blinked into an X symbol, similar to a Disassembly Drone.

Dror’s piercing glare remained frozen in place as he raised the stinger higher.

(Art by @ColorDrake)

"Alright, you're done!"

The second J's voice rang through the air, it was as if a pause button was hit on Dror, lasting a good few seconds until he immediately let out a huge exhale as if he had been holding in an incredibly deep breath as he dropped the tail to the ground. He rubbed his visor as he continued taking breaths.

"Man, what a workout." He kneeled down and started to remove the magnets from N's head, not noticing the taller drone in wide-eyed horror. "Hope you don't take this personally with all the junk. I wanted to test out if stuff like this made for good tools in a fight and suffice to say, I'm gonna make sure I always have stuff like that in my pocket if I ever get in a tussle." Dror finally pulled the numb N back to a standing position, wincing once he noticed the indent on the ground in the shape of his head. "Oh damn, sorry about that! I guess I got a little too into the fight and got carried away."

N blinked the shock away and went back to his nervously naïve self. "Y-Yeah, it's fine."

Dror smiled back and removed the restraints on N's wrists next. "Modified these from the old ninja stars I showed you. Just had to make them able to lock onto a drone's signal and they just go flying right to where they’re supposed to. Honestly surprised it wasn’t a lot harder to do that."

The sound of slow clapping drew their attention as J approached smile. "Congrats, you won the exercise Dror. Granted you were sloppy and relied too much on those toys to win, and clearly N is unused to fighting in such a controlled manner but a victory is still a victory."

Dror soaked up the praise with a deep breath, more proud of himself than ever as J patted the top of his head. J's eyes then turned to N and her smile got colder. N gulped at the sudden shift before her eyes darted back to Dror.

"I think a reward is in order, a promotion for our loyal Worker Drone. As of now, Dror, you will be positioned above N in our squad rank." As Dror froze in shock, she continued, "As the employee with the higher ranked position, you are free to command N with the authority of a proper higher-up. Of course anything you order must remain in our guidelines and anything ordered by either me or V is still above both of you."

From her pocket, J pulled out a new Disassembly Drone armband and handed to Dror. While visibly there's practically no difference, there's a slight change in the serial coding compared to the one Dror currently has on.

Dror blinked, glancing at N before smiling, "Holy robo-christ, for real? I actually got a promotion!?" 

J snickered and held up a hand. "A small promotion, don’t let it get to your head. You managed to bypass N so this isn’t what I’d consider impressive." There was some barely held contempt at mentioning N's name. "You still aren't really ready for the field yet so you'll still be doing some training. Just for now, N is obligated to follow your word."

"I mean, don’t think I’ll be telling N what to do anytime soon, we’re chill after all…” Dror commented solemnly before smiling widely again. “But I'll take it! Heck I haven’t even finished what I’m REALLY working on yet, these were just prototypes! Once I’m all done, you guys are gonna begging me to come on hunts!"

J smirked at his confident enthusiasm, just what she liked to see. "Can't wait to see it."

Dror, newly invigorated, dashed back to his hut. "Sorry about the beatdown N! We can hang out later!"

N gave a timid wave as Dror left, leaving him alone with his leader who was suddenly a lot more silent, quietly watching as Dror entered his hut. The moment he shut the door...

SMACK

N was sent tumbling to the ground again courtesy of a backhand from J. She glared down at hum, any semblance of her happy demeanor gone. "That was pathetic. You're gonna tell me a squadmate of mine put on a display that bad?"

N anxiously rubbed the spot where she hit him. “Wha- You...wanted me to hurt Dror? I thought this was just supposed to be training…"

No you idiot!" She clenched her fist, restraining herself from punching him again. "Ugh! Can’t believe I have to repeat myself! This was an evaluation for BOTH of you. I didn’t want Dror being injured, but what I also did not want was you practically being his testing dummy!" She pinched her visor. "His performance was beyond my expectation, even with his abnormal improvement as of late. With that new factor in mind, his chances of winning were higher but they were still less than your chances"

J leaned down closer so N could see the cold and sharp disappointment in her eyes. "At Dror's best, you had a 65% chance in your favor WITHOUT lethal weaponry. Not to mention he’s still untrained and those devices of his are hardly advantages in a real fight. Between our years of work experience, I expected you to give him an actual challenge."

N got back to his feet to defend himself. "I'm sorry J, really, but he's still our friend and… I've never had to hold back like that before, I don’t even know how to!"

Clicking her teeth, J glared and turned her back on her employee. "Tch! At this point I have severe doubts on what you even can handle. I wanted to see what one of my squadmates is capable of against an actual opponent, someone who isn’t just waiting to be killed, and what did I see?" She turned back around and poked his chest, making him step back. "An unskilled weakling who couldn't even get a single shot in before failure. I hoped V's lessons would’ve caused some improvement but now? Pah! How can I be confident you could even DAMAGE another Disassembly Drone, let alone a semi-capable Worker being able to take you out with your own stinger! How he managed to fight two drones weak enough to beat like that is..." J shook her head and growled, "V would be embarrassed after all that." 

N flinched, "J..."

"Your demotion is set. Even if a new Worker happens to join us like Dror, you'll be beneath them." J turned around once more. "Until further notice your restricted from hunting and will be Dror's sparring partner. Shape up N or I'm gonna get really angry." 

As J finally walked away. N felt… hurt, way more than usual. J had always been harsh with him, even if she had been letting him off easy throughout the past year. She always expected the best out of N, so he could take it when she reprimanded him for failure(that's fair, right?). This time was different, J's cold words felt like frozen daggers cutting his spirit to shreds. 

"...Let alone a semi-capable Worker being able to take you out with your own stinger! How he managed to fight two drones weak enough to beat like that is..."

Wait, what did she mean by that? Wasn’t this Dror's first time sparring properly?

Discarding that thought. N's eyes drifted to Dror's home, his mind on the orange-eyed drone, particularly that horrifying look on his face. He was used to Dror as his best bud, someone who was friendly with him even if he’s being his usual irritating self. In that moment, N felt none of the warmth from his usual upbeat demeanor, only raw fear from a predator. 

Is that...what N looked like to Worker Drones?

The viscous face of the Murder Drone glared down at Uzi as she grinned back, eager for what was about to come. 

She ran straight forward, dodging, leaping and rolling over the bright yellow lasers from all directions, using her smaller self to the best of her advantage. From the corner of her eye, Uzi spots a figure divebombing from above which she skillfully ducks down to avoids. Her weapon was kept tightly in her grip all the while, she could not lose it at all cost.

At last, her enemy was in sight. She aims and prepares to fire...

"UZI!"

The purple drone screeches to a stop and groans. “Hey dad…?"

In the now-open doorway was Khan Doorman. Head of Outpost 3, leader of the Worker Defense Force, and father of Uzi Doorman. He stands with his arms crossed and an unamused look on his face as he stares at his daughter, even as several holographic lasers reflect off of his body. The older drone took out a remote and pushed the button on it, flickering on the lights of the gymnasium and illuminating the handmade obstacle course Uzi had created and a group of other Worker Drones watching the exchange.  

Khan’s white eyes surveyed the room, spying fog machines, laser diodes taken from last year's prom, sandbags swinging on ropes and "Murder Drones" stood up like scarecrows. "When you said you'd been setting up in the gym, I was HOPING it would be for school."

Uzi grumbled and looked at her feet, throwing aside the cardboard imitation of a gun she carried. "...You didn’t exactly ask for details..." She grimaced as she could hear the observers muttering to themselves.

Khan sighed deeply. "Does this have to do with your 'kill all Murder Drones' thing again? I thought you'd have gotten over that by now."

"No. I just stopped telling you about it." Uzi glared and mimed her dad's posture. "'Oh Uzi, that's just silly. We're all perfectly safe hiding like a bunch of cowards forever, why not make some more stupid doors?' No thanks, I got enough of those lectures.."

Khan sputtered incomprehensibly before settling on a word to yell out. "STUPID!?" He gasped for breath before coughing into his hand. "AHEM. I’ve already told you Uzi, there has never been any recorded scenario where purposely inciting conflict has ever not resulted in unnecessary death! All this plan of yours would do is drive the Murder Drones attention right towards us. I know you want to have your big epic ‘adventure’, to become the ‘valiant hero’ we all need or whatever your… cartoons inspire you to do, but there is zero harm in just staying behind the good ol' doors and living."

Uzi winced each time he made quotation gestures to describe her desire for adventure and to be a hero, it wasn’t the first time her dad showed how little he tried to actually understand her perspective. She crossed her arms and pouted. "Mom wouldn't have let this slide."

Khan's eye twitched at that. "Uzi Doorman." His daughter flinched at the change in tone. "Your mother would NOT want you to run out there and get yourself killed." His eyes darted around the gym again before turning his eyes back on her. "Now you go home, it's a school night. I'll clean this up and we'll talk about it tomorrow."

"But Dad-..."

"Now!"

Uzi gritted her teeth, tempted to argue back, but she could tell it would be no use. Instead she kept her head down and stomped her way out of the gymnasium. The crowd of onlookers parted the way for her and watched as she left, making various comments both out of curiosity and amusement. 

Khan looked at the crowd, "I have this handled everybody, you can go back to bed." His word was enough to get the drones to slowly leave. He pinched at his visor and let out a heavy sigh of frustration at the exchange, the only real interaction they've had for the past few years, and it had to turn out like this... 

He walked over and went to take down the first sandbag only to hear a gust from behind him paired with a red flash. He jumped in surprise and whirled around to see every single thing Uzi had setup thrown into a pile and a familiar red-eyed drone standing beside it.

"Oh, hello Yeva." Khan waved with a grateful smile on his face, "Your impeccable ability to sort everything when I'm not looking is as helpful as ever."

The female drone nodded stoically and walked out the door, leaving Khan with a much easier job. 

Yeva headed in the direction of the last drone left behind, her own daughter Doll who looked annoyed.

On the other side of the gymnasium doors, Yeva was greeted by her own daughter. Doll looked awfully annoyed. 

Yeva squinted her eyes and questioned in her native Russian tongue. "Something wrong, daughter?"

Doll's eyes darted to a ground with a glare, "Uzi. Her obsession with the Murder Drones is problematic, mama. Dangerous."

Both mother and daughter walked through the hallways as they spoke. Yeva looked contemplative, "She is Nori's daughter after all. She was...similar back then. Are you worried?"

Doll contemplated her answer., "....No. For all of her big talk, Uzi lacks conviction. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were to actually go outside, she’d run back in at the sound of a pebble dropping."

Yeva raised an eyebrow, "I wouldn't underestimate her. You'd be surprised how far many are willing to go in the face of their ambitions." She then gave a small sigh and smiled, "Let's not worry about this today, your father will already have dinner waiting for us."

As Doll smiled back at her mother, both unaware as they passed the drone they had been discussing slouching in a corner. Her purple eyes glaring with a bright shine, having heard all their words.

"Tch, 'lack conviction' do I? Whatever the heck that means…"

It was fine, everyone could think whatever the hell they wanted. With all of her prep time coming to a close soon, Uzi felt more ready than ever to finally take her first step on her hero's journey. Her special project was so close to completion, just a few more parts before it was time to find it a suitable power source.

It's only a matter of time.

The finale draws near...

(Art by @ColorDrake)

Chapter Text

A lone figure wandered the snow-covered forest, staying perfectly silent save for the crunching of snow under their feet. Long orange hair pulled back in a low ponytail flowed with the chilling wind. Bright sandy pink eyes stared straight ahead paired with a small smile which both lacked warmth behind them, colder than the frosty world around the Worker Drone.  None of this mattered to the stranger as they kept an even pace, hands placed behind their back. 

It had been so very long since they stepped out into the empty world of Copper-9. Murder Drones, of course, remained a good reason to stay within protective borders but they'd be lying if that was their reason. In fact fearing those company-employed servants was an amusing notion more than anything. No, research needed to be done. Nights like these were usually spent relaxing in their studies, perhaps with some company to discuss the latest findings. 

But tonight was special. They felt it in their core, the pull of fate. The power of one wielding absolution. 

It's been many years since they last felt it. A pair of purple haired Workers with polar opposite personalities last they recalled, a humorous set. Such a shame they couldn't be convinced to be of better use. Though maybe this time will be different?

The Worker Drone gave a quiet chuckle, "No, they were much too stubborn..."

If there was any hope of getting them to work together, more insistence was needed. Much more insistence. Then again, there's always the chance a new wielder has come along. That'd be much easier to manage. 

All the Worker Drone has is a direction, the general area where they felt the pull. It had come and gone quickly but at least they had a guiding point. But as they approached a vast empty city, complete with the familiar sight of a large spire created by the infernal slaves of JCJenson, where is one to start? 

For the stranger, the answer is clear as a sudden and powerful beam of green light shot into the sky, clearing away frigid air and even dispelling a looming cloud. Even the light of the moon was overwhelmed by the ray of power.

"And so the light of the divine serves as my marker..."

(Art by @ColorDrake)

"All is it should be."

The stranger's smile grew as they pressed onward...

Just a small tease as the finale is close to release. The current plan is to hopefully have it out by the end of April or early May if more time is needed. Remember, every time someone asks when it comes out I'll delay it by extra time. 
Also a good time to announce there will be another Q&A open after the finale is out with some limited spoilers allowed to be answer, depending on what's asked. Hopefully serve as a fun transition to leave behind Season 1 of On-Brand Loyalty.

In other news, got some really cool fanart from Twitter user @Coffieee800, thanks so much for the support!

Chapter Text

J has always believed in purpose, the notion that she and every other drone were made for a designated goal. For others it puts a limitation on their life but for J it's what drives her forward. The feeling of being needed, to have a place in the world.

And her purpose was to be a guardian, back when she was simply known as "Serial Designation J-10X111001". One among many Worker Drones built with paid protection service in mind. From the assembly line J was uploaded with all kinds of combat data, from hand-to-hand to weaponry. Not only that, she was given basic training from instructors to assure her skills were worth the price for consumer and investor. 

So J served her role and served it well. When the rich felt the need for safety, her and others of similar programming were sent to guard their lives. J, personally, always made sure the services were worth the money spent. 

Until the fateful day at the Elliott Manor. 

The memories have always been foggier than most but for whatever reason James and Louisa Elliott felt their lives were at first and paid top-dollar for security. It had been sudden, someone at a public event had pulled out a firearm and fired, aiming straight for the wealthy family. J fulfilled her protocols and stepped in the way. 

With a sudden bang, her purpose had been finished....until she was brought back to reality. The first thing that met her visual optics were the wide eyes of the young Tessa Elliott. Excitement radiated within her irises, happy to have successfully revived the seemingly doomed Worker Drone, and relief. 

As it turns out, Tessa was the one J had directly saved and the girl felt guilt that a drone had died because of her. So she spent months learning the mechanical functions of Worker Drones, finding a knack for engineering along the way until eventually she was able to safely bring back her savior. 

And from the moment the drone was given the nickname "J", she realized her purpose hadn't ended, only brought further to light. She only grew happier to serve it.

Until...

"Hello, J. Deceptive smile."

J shook her head, disoriented from the sudden influx of memories. They were nothing new, just more and more of the same questionable content. Yet that voice...

"Oi boss, you good?" V called from beside in the air. 

...The air? Oh right, they're in the middle of a hunt. 

The pigtailed drone stabilized her flight and put on her typical professional demeanor. "I'm fine, V. Just a momentary distraction."

V just rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say.....Oh, I see some easy pickings!" She swooped down, quickly followed by J. It seems like tonight's hunt is just more of the same.

Meanwhile back at home base, Dror woke up with a groan with his head lying on his table and body slumped uncomfortably on a chair. He slowly raised his head, small bits of metal stuck to his visor before he swiped them off. He had pulled another all-day session of working on his project, putting on a healthy recharge cycle. 

The Worker stood up and stretched his limps, noting that it had only been about two hours of rest. Plenty of time to keep working until morning and getting some proper sleep. Dror just needed a little more time to work and finally it will be down. 

He's so eager to show the squad (Read: show and impress J) what he's been working on. But a small walk around the spire before getting back into it couldn't hurt. So Dror headed over and opened his door and.....

.....stared at the punk-themed female Worker Drone standing right in the middle of the open area. 

"....what the f-"

For the first time in her life, Uzi stepped outside of the bunker. From the cold and dark door-protected cage to the even colder and darker open world, a constant blizzard bathing the landscape in visually limiting snow. The perfect post-apocalyptic setting for a young hero to take stand, end the vile scourge of otherworldly monsters, EARN HER DAD's RESPECT AND TAKE THE BATTLE TO EARTH-

She needs to calm down.....

The young Worker Drone steels herself, keeping herself grounded. "Okay, I can do this. I just need to find something to power my railgun and get back. Easy-peasy, just need to pick it up..." Uzi pulled out her smartphone and clicked into a customized app, bringing up a radar on screen. It was made to detect some form of energy signature beyond what's typically used within drones within a 300 meter radius, since a non-thriving exoplanet would make it easy to single out. It was just her luck the app managed to pick up on something from within the bunker. "...THAT WAY!"

So she took her first steps to the empty city and tried her best to ignore all the frozen skeletons. Uzi held no love for humans, she plans to take her revenge after all but it didn't make seeing their remains any less gross. It's better than robotic corpses of course-...

CRACK

....and she just stepped on the visor of a Worker Drone....

Uzi felt nauseous but held the feeling down, just keeping her head up and eyes darting around for any sudden movement. A dead drone means a Murder Drone has to be close by but thankfully for her, she's still alone. She took a glance back at her radar and pressed on. 

Once she passed by a skyscraper, she saw it. The large, towering figure of the Murder Drone nest, a large pile of Worker Drone corpses piled into the universe's weirdest gravesite. Taking another glance at her radar, it seemed that what she's looking for is right in the heart of it.

"Damn it..." Uzi muttered. As eager as she was to fight a Murder Drone head to head, she also knew a few months of basic self-training weren't nearly enough. That's why she needs this railgun finished so badly and now that just became an even greater hurdle. 

Whatever, this will just make explaining her epic backstory in the future all the cooler. 

Uzi adopted a new approach, keeping herself closer to the ground and quickly darting from one form of cover to the next. Behind a light post, rolling behind a snow pile, sliding under a car. Just anything to make sure one of the looming night stalkers didn't catch a glimpse of her. Admittedly the large deadweight that is her powerless gun makes it hard but she tried her best. 

After a few tense moments, she made it to the large entrance of the spire and slowly stepped her way inside. It's like stepping inside cavern, the smell of rusty metal and old oil filling her olfactory sensor and making her more nauseated than before. A single light source from above made the entire area clear to see, a field of dismembered drone parts scattered all across a wide area surrounding what looked to be a landing pod.....and a small house? A shed?

While Uzi had to double take on that, she shook her head and focused on avoiding any distractions. Making sure the death field is currently abandoned, she pulled out her radar and made her way inside. The girl moved a lot quicker than before to not waste the opportunity and quickly found her target, a surprisingly large energy core.

"Wow, look at this thing. What is it?" She questioned, holding up the green core up to her eye level. The item held some kind of radiation, leaving some warmth like a charging phone. Whatever it is, she knew from her radar that it's good enough to power her railgun. 

Uzi could feel satisfaction and pride well up inside her body, she had done it! Who knew it'd be this easy just to sneak out and get the key to victory, this is perfect!

Yet she quickly became distracted as the door to the shed opened and....a Worker Drone walked out? The two of them quickly had their eyes meet, purple staring into orange.

He opened his mouth, "Wha-"

On-Brand Loyalty

Prelude Finale

Year One: Loyalty Tested

"-uck?"

The two Worker Drones stood and stared at each other, both mentally processing what exactly they just encountered. Uzi just squinted her eyes as if trying to confirm if what she's seeing is real while Dror just looked visibly confused. He blinked at first, then lightly slapped his face, and then slapped again a little harder.

When the stranger didn't disappear from his vision, Dror just sighed, "Of course I gotta have a random distraction. Fine, let's get this over with." He started to walk over, which finally confirmed for Uzi that the new Worker Drone is in fact not a hallucination. She quickly put the energy core into one of her pockets before Dror could notice as he finally stood in front of her. 

To the girl, he seemed....young? Uzi often cursed her own short stature but this guy was somehow an inch or two even smaller. Yet his voice was surprisingly more mature when he spoke aloud, "Alright new girl, state your business."

Uzi raised an annoyed eyebrow, "MY business? I should be asking you what the heck you're doing in a MURDER DRONE nest!?" She gestured her arms around the death ridden structure. "Is this place abandoned by them or something?"

Dror rolled his eyes. "No. Why would they leave a well made place like this for no reason. It probably took them years to have this many corpses to pile up."

The girl doubled down, "Then WHY are you here?"

He squinted his eyes, "Why are YOU here?"

"That's...none of your business!" Uzi glared, "Answer my question!"

Dror glared back, "I live here, so a twerp like you IS my business."

"Wha...?" Uzi's face blanked, "You just said that the Murder Drones still live here."

"Yep."

"...and you say YOU live here."

Dror frowned, "Yes. Can you get somewhere with a point?"

Uzi's eye twitched, almost feeling the progress bar in her sense of logic failing to fill. "....You live with Murder Drones?"

"For the love of unpaid internship, YES!" Dror facepalmed, "I live with Disassembly Drones, thank you very much. No I'm not spying on them, I'm not captive. We just live together."

Uzi took a step back, mind reeling from the sudden exposition. She opened her mouth and attempted to answer back, left gaping as she took a moment to do so, "Okay so either you're lying, you're crazy, or they're crazy. I don't know what fantasy you think you live in but we're currently in a monster apocalypse."

Dror felt even more irritated at the girl's sass. Despite himself, he wasn't fully sure he wanted to witness a kid get bisected or something when N comes back from getting a snack (with Dror's insistence, given J's new restrictions). "They're not so bad. Their leader J's especially nice behind her 'always in command' persona, but I know I'm not convincing you. Look, you need to get out. NOW."

Instead of listening, Uzi focused on a particular word choice. "Her? These things have genders?"

Dror growled, "Will you just listen to me? I'm trying to help-..."

"Wait no..." Uzi's glare got more scrutinizing, "This isn't some weird Stockholm thing between you and a girl monster right?"

"....I don't see how something like that would be relevant."

Uzi recoiled, "Oh gross! Why kind of weird ignorant kid are you?"

"Kid!? Why you little..." Dror grimaced, "I. AM. AN. ADULT."

Uzi blinked at him before snickering, barely attempting to hide how amused she is. "Wow and I thought my growth sport was being late."

 Dror's eye started twitching as he felt his ire reaching its peak. He gritted his teeth to stop himself from ranting at a complete stranger. The ONE time he feels like being nice and of course this old joke on his life comes back. From the edge of his audio sensors though, Dror can hear the familiar sound of flapping wings. He steeled his emotions and took a deep breath, walking a few steps backwards as he did so.

Uzi raises an eyebrow at his sudden backpedal, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just getting ready for a show. I need to ask you something important though..." He takes a seat on a Worker Drone head, crossing his arms with a small smile. "What do you want me to tell your family?"

Uzi felt a chill at his words and was about to question it, until she saw a yellow glint on the visor of the head Dror's sitting on. In a rush of pure reflex, she ducks down and barely avoiding something almost taking her head off, impacting the ground between the Worker Drones.

"What the...?"

Through the snow flurry, her eyes widen in fear as she saw it. A Murder Drone standing in position, claws at the ready and a malicious yellow X pointed her direction. Behind the newcomer, Dror grumbles as he's covered in excess snow. 

"N!"

The taller drone blinked his normal eyes back and sheepishly smiled at Dror, "Sorry bud!"

Uzi noticeably got more confused, "They can talk?" She yelped as she ducked again from N swinging his bladed wings but that left her open for his tail to come in and wrap around her waist. With a flick, she's sent flying into the air and straight towards a large hunk of discarded metal. Before impact, Uzi's able to extend her hand and make herself flip over it to land her feet, wobbly but unharmed. 

"Woah," Uzi looked at herself with pride, "Looks like all that hard work actually went somewhere."

"Eyes on the prize, Paramore!"

Hearing Dror call from the sidelines, Uzi escaped another close brush with death as N had switched to his machine gun and opened fire. She rolled behind the protection of the metal junk that almost served as her landing pad. As she heard the deadly impact of the bullets hitting her protection, Uzi finally took out her hidden energy core and slotted it into her railgun. She wasn't sure what she was going to find out here so thankfully the necessary slot was designed adjustable to place the core inside of. 

Instantly the weapon came to life, green lights dancing through its framework and an energetic hum ringing out as the energy coursed through it. If she had the chance, Uzi would've taken a moment to admire it but that's for later. Seeing his firearm doing little effect, N leaped forward and perched on top of the obstacle blocking his prey.

Where he expected a cowering Worker Drone, instead he's face to face with the muzzle of a sci-fi weapon. 

"BITE ME!"

With the pull of a trigger, the railgun's chamber ignited in a flash of destructive light. N had no hope of dodging from point blank, his entire head blasted away and sent his body flying backwards from the force. Even Dror and Uzi had to shield their eyes from the raw intensity of the laser.

Uzi grunted as her back is dragged across the ground, having failed to probably ground herself before firing and finding herself taking the brunt of the recoil. Thankfully for her, she's left unharmed as the railgun finished firing and her momentum slowed to a crawl. 

On the ground, she groaned, "Note to self, don't do that again." Uzi got an alert pinged within her HUD, reading "Recharging: 30 Minutes". Glancing down to her arms, the railgun's bright green had transitioned to a dull red while waves of heat radiated out of the frame. Glancing up at her target, the Murder Drone laid on the ground. Inactive and its entire head missing. 

The first thing she felt was shock. She did it? Her railgun, months in the making, had successfully killed a Murder Drone. It almost seemed like an endless dream and yet there it is, a headless corpse. She...did it. SHE DID IT!

"HAHAHA!" Uzi triumphantly laughed, holding her railgun up like a trophy. "Note to self, TOTALLY do that again! Suck on that, Dad! How's that for being 'too inspired by cartoons'!"

"N..." From the sidelines, Dror stared wide-eyed at his friend's body. Lying there, so still with oil and static sparking around the severed neck. He took one small step after another before running into a full on sprint. Dror stood over N, panic in his eyes as he struggles to think of what to do. "NONONONO! How did....why....."

Uzi gave him a small glare, "It's just a monster. We're all better off with one less in the world."

Dror froze, not moving as a strong gust of wind blew by. "Excuse me?" He slowly turned around, the brim of his hat hiding his eyes. "You don't understand what you did. N was my friend." He lifted his head up, causing Uzi to flinch in shock at the hateful glare Dror is sending her way. He gritted his teeth. "I'll.....I'LL-!"

Both Worker Drones stopped as the sound of mechanical warpling filled the air, drawing attention to N's body. A body that's now standing while a liquid goop pools out of the neck wound. Within seconds, it solidified back into N's normal head, completely with his hair and hat perfectly in tact before he got blasted by a sci-fi weapon. 

Uzi looked on in horror while Dror gained a wide smile, "N! Oh thank the company you're alright!"

The female Worker lost her balance and fell backwards on the ground, "I blasted it's head clean off....and it just got back up?"

Dror ran over to N, "Man, I know you Disassemblers have good regeneration but THIS good? That's so cool!" When his friend failed to answer him, Dror noticed the error messages on N's visor. "The hell? 'Optic sensors offline'. Umm, how do I..." He waved a hand in front of N's face and snapped his fingers a few times, no avail. 

With a shrug, Dror then did it J's way. A smack to the face.

N shook his head as his visor returned to his normal yellow eyes. "Ow."

"Sorry N," Dror sheepishly smiled, "Just need to make sure you're alright."

N smiled back, "Oh no problem bud......Alright from what?"

The shorter drone blinked, "From the....gun..." At that point, Dror noticed one of N's head bulbs was suddenly a reddish color. "Are you feeling okay?"

The Disassembly Drone scratched the side of his head, "Well my head feels a little shaky and I can't seem to remember past few hours of my life but all good, Dror."

Dror groaned a bit, "Ah damn it, something in your system must've got fried. Maybe J will know what to do about that. Then again, perhaps this is something that'll just work out on its own...?" 

As Dror rambled to himself, N looked over his head at the petrified female Worker. "Who's that? They seem new."

Dror paused, giving Uzi a side glance. He frowned, "Oh yeah. We have a loose end to tie up." His eye dart to next to Uzi, at the railgun. 

"What the hell is that?! Did she make it or did she find it? One of a kind or in quantities? Just one shot almost killed N, how many shots can it fire? Damn it, I have to separate it before she can blast one of us again!"

As Dror had his inner turmoil, he thankfully didn't have to worry for too long. As quickly as he began to panic, J suddenly arrived from the sky and dramatically landed in front of him. Dror could barely even hold up a hand to wave before J grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Dror! I heard that explosion, are you okay? Was N able to protect you? If he didn't, I'll rip out his core!" 

"J! I'M FINE, STOP SHAKING ME!"

Uzi, at the sight of the almost comedic show on display, felt some of her fear get replaced by solemn realization and a little disappointment. "Huh. They do come in 'her'." She couldn't help but notice how the female Murder Drone's panic somewhat resembled how the crazy Worker acted towards the one she shot. 

Suddenly, Uzi felt herself get picked up by the back of her hoodie and was face to face with another female Murder Drone. This one looked sadistically gleeful. 

"Look at this one J! We got ourselves a little intruder."

J, taking the time to stop her (workplace appropriate) concern for Dror, turned to see Uzi in V's grasp. Her eyes narrowed, "And just what is that purple thing doing here?"

V shrugged, "No idea but I have been meaning to practice making some balloon animal shapes. What do ya' say, new girl? Wanna volunteer?"

Dror felt a grim bit of satisfaction to see the fear return to the young Worker's expression, the terror of a hopeless situation. As much as he wants her to face karma for N....He had to stop this. He had to know more about that gun, whether it's something to be more wary of. 

"That's a new recruit!" Dror stammered out, causing both J and V to look at him bewildered. "...Maybe?"

V raised an eyebrow and lifted Uzi up to her eye level, scrutinizing her closely, "This small thing?"

"Bite me!" 

J crossed her arms, "Dror, explain."

"Well," Dror began, quickly thinking of an excuse. "You see me and N had decided to take a small walk around and we come across this girl. This girl named....."

"...Uzi."

"UZI! Yes, we encountered Uzi who N attacked on first sight and she managed to fend him off. Isn't that right?"

N, not actually remembering what happened, nodded, "Yeah, I guess so."

V rolled her eyes, "Pfft. That's not impressive."

But J shot Uzi a look, "For one of us, perhaps. But for a random toaster?" She grimaced as Uzi stuck her tongue at her, tempted to slash it out. 

Dror quickly continued, "So yeah, that explosion was because of that fight. It turns out, Uzi ALSO got exiled from her colony for not really caring about Disassembly Drones being bad and wanted to learn from them. That's why she's close to our base."

Uzi looked offended, "Wha...?"

J hummed, "That's...suspicious."

"I thought the same, J," Dror answered, "But I figured it couldn't hurt to at least hear her out. I mean I exist after all, so why not another potential Worker Drone. I mean look at her." He walked over to Uzi and gestured to her appearance. "A real renegade, definitely not a normal Worker Drone in the crowd. Rejects gotta stick together."

When Uzi was about to make a snappy retort, Dror shoved his hand over her mouth and smiled.

J took the time to think about Dror's explanation, giving it some deep thought. "Don't call yourself a reject, Dror, you're better than that." She gave a nod to V, who groaned and dropped Uzi on the ground.

"Hey, watch it!"

V rolled her eyes, "Whatever." 

As Uzi got to her feet, she glared at Dror. He just leaned close and whispered to her, "Don't mess this up or you're gonna die."

"I trust your judgement," J started, "But we're gonna need some form of proof. I don't feel comfortable allowing a stranger around you like this so the previous system is out of the question."

Dror smirked, "Don't worry, she gave us a gift." He held up something that shocked Uzi, the Door Master Key. She quickly checked her hoodie pocket and found it empty. That damn drone just pickpocketed her! "This right here is a door key, if I can guess one to that big ass door you've all failed to breach for the past few months." 

J snatched the key card out of Dror's hand, checking it over and scanning it with her visual sensors. While she can't confirm it to be compatible with their infuriatingly long term issue, she can determine that it's indeed a fully functioning key card. "This...would be very useful if true. Are you sure this can be trusted?"

Dror gave an amused scoff, "Of course not. But think of how high our teams numbers will soar with how many bodies are waiting to be counted in that bunker. You remember what being top of this quarter means, right J."

Realizing what he means, they both smiled and leaned towards each other. Both excitedly exclaimed, "Branded pens~!" While N smiled at their joint hype, Uzi and V shot each other an embarrassed glance, then they glared when they remembered their current situation.

J took a step back and smirked, "Let's hope your word is true, Uzi. If not," She gave the young Worker a hungry fanged smirk, "You'll be praying for it to end faster."

Uzi gulped and sent a nervous thumbs up, "Yeah, sure..."

Satisfied, J tossed the key card at V to catch, "V, you go on ahead. If there's a trap lying in wait, I trust your skills to manage it. Once you confirm it's easy pickings, send a signal and I'll leap in after you."

V frowned, "Ah huh, sure. That's the reason." She extended her wings and took off for her mission.

J turned to the male members of her squad. "Dror, N. You'll stay here and watch the newbie. Useful or not, kill her if you feel she steps a toe out of line."

Dror saluted as J was about to talk off, making sure to quickly ask, "By the way, N's still a little banged up from his fight. How do I fix that sensor on his head."

The squad leader took a glance at the discolored bulb and answered, "Just give him a good wack in the head. Hit hard enough and it'll trigger a system reboot, he'll be fine." And with that, she took off out of the spire.

Giving J time to leave, Dror turns to Uzi and glares, "You are alive for one reason and one reason only." He held up the railgun, having swiped it from off the ground. "You are gonna tell me everything I want to know or N's gonna blow your head off. Answer good enough, fast enough and maybe I can call off J from massacring whatever family you have left. Got it?"

Uzi gritted her teeth, full of rage and guilt. "Bite me. Let's...get this over with."

Dror nodded, "Good. N, in the bunker!"

Behind the safety of the bunker doors, four Worker Drones stared intently at each other across a table. Each have a set of cards in their hand, just wanting to be unveiled for their masterful plays. One of them held up a card and....

"I'm gonna be honest, I can't tell what these cards even say anymore."

He turned over a card showing that not only are the displayed numbers completely smudged, but also the symbols are too. "I would say it being black means it's either spades or clubs but at this point I think the red ink might've faded too. I could say it's four of a kind and no one can question it." 

With a murmur of agreement around the table, the drones dropped their hands and showed how poorly conditioned their playing cards were. 

"Wasn't Khan supposed to get a new deck?"

"I think he got too excited about his kid learning about doors or something. Say, it's been a while since she went out, huh?"

"Well you know those Doormans, super into doors."

Their conversation got interrupted with the sudden opening of the entrance doors, which sent a sudden gust of wind inside and blew away their unplayable cards. 

One of the Workers grumbled as he attempted to catch some, "Ah geez Uzi, you could've knocked first!"

When another Worker opened his mouth to agree, he squinted at the entrance as the airborne snow fluffy started to clear up. "Kid, did you get....taller?"

Standing in the entrance, V gave a sadistic grin and readied her claws, "Oh, this is going to be a fun night." Taking a moment, she turned around and switched one of her claws into a small gun, shooting a flare into the sky. The Disassembly Drone smirked, "Let's get this started."

A Worker scratched the back of his head, "...Could she always shoot things out of her hand?"

Then in a split second he lost his head. 

"Yep, this is certainly a BFG if I've ever seen one."

Dror twirled the railgun around in his arms, noting its surprising lightweight. From what he was told from Uzi (he didn't know how to feel about the both of them sharing gun-themed names), it's currently a one-of-a-kind weapon and her first attempt at that. It honestly made him a little jealous but then again, from what he understood it took her a long time to even put it together.

It also required a large amount of power, notably from a certain energy core she stole. Sure it was just thrown on the ground after it gave Dror a small zap and he chucked it out the door in a fit of rage but it was still their property. 

"And that's when I overheard Doll and her mom talking about me like I'm a nutcase. Like she has any room to talk with how creepy she likes to act AND somehow thinks someone like Lizzy is good company. The nerve of her to judge me!"

Dror blinked up at Uzi who had found herself lost in a rant. He turned to N beside him who was silently listening, "I spaced out for a bit, how long has she been going?"

N gave a small smile, "For a few minutes, I think. Honestly she sounds pretty exciting to be around, challenging the system and everything."

The male Worker frowned, "We are the system, N. Don't let this kid's nonsense get in your head."

N flinched back from Dror's sudden cold demeanor. Meanwhile Uzi continued on without paying either drones any mind, "I just can't stand this whole 'hide forever' idea everyone's got stuck in their heads. My dad won't shut up about stupid doors!"

"A door saved my life once, I'll have you know," Dror interrupted. "If you're finally done with the exposition dump, I have to admit I'm impressed by this railgun of yours. You built this by yourself, right?"

Uzi, only slightly embarrassed by how much she ranted, crossed her arms and grunted, "Yeah, so what?"

Dror smiled, "Good, that means your colony's defenses shouldn't be much of a threat. Judging by your whole rebel attitude, I'm assuming you're alone on the whole 'we need to fight back' front so they should be easy pickings. Besides, you needed a particularly high amount of power to maintain this thing so..." Making a small show of it, Dror pulled the energy core out of the railgun and stuffed it into his pocket. "Problem solved. Good luck finding a replacement, without stealing of course."

Uzi growled and grabbed her now de-powered gun back, "Whatever. I told you everything alright, now can you PLEASE call back your...friends?"

Dror snorted, "HA, no. I don't really care what happens to some random Worker Drones. I just lied about 'calling J off' so you'd tell me quicker."

"WHAT!?" Uzi yelled, "You can't just let them kill everybody! Most of them have probably never even seen a Murder Drone in person, they would barely even be able to help themselves. We have kids in our colony!"

He raised an eyebrow, "...Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

Uzi's eyes widened before narrowing, "We're all Worker Drones, you psycho! Why are you okay with them getting slaughtered?!" 

Dror took a step forward and glared right in her face, "Worker Drones have never meant anything to me. You act like you're all alone in your little hero's journey but it seems like you at least had the luxury of a parent who remotely cares for you. As far as I'm concerned, Disassembly Drones are worth keeping around more than us outdated models." 

The girl gritted her teeth but just cast her glare to the ground, feeling more helpless than her entire life. Observing the interaction, N felt...guilty to see Uzi so distraught. For the past few weeks, he also couldn't help but realize how off Dror really seemed to be. He's a great friend but N never paid much mind to how Dror really compared to other Worker Drones. Seeing an interaction like this in person, it felt so cold. He didn't like it.

"N, keep an eye on her. The orders remain in place: She steps a toy out of line, kill her." Dror made his way over to the exit ladder of the pod and climbed up, "I'm taking a power nap, this crap is stressing me out too much."

N gave a small wave, lacking the energy to show his usual enthusiasm. "Okay Dror." With the short Worker Drone gone, N turned to Uzi who is still staring down. He took a few steps closer, "Hey....Uzi, right? Are you....doing okay?"

She gave him a side eye, "Why do you care, Murder Drone?"

"Well," He tried to give a small smile, "I don't like seeing anybody be sad."

Uzi gave a humorless laugh, "How about that. I meet a friendly Murder Drone and an evil Worker Drone. That'd be a funny story to tell if there's anyone left. I suppose you're the only nice one?"

As much as N wanted to defend Dror from being called "evil"...he found it hard to reason against at the moment. He just was so harsh. "I guess you can say that. V's great, you'd love her if you got to know her, but she has her...quirks."

If Uzi had to guess, that likely referred to the drone who picked her up and wanted to rearrange her body parts. "Mmmhmmm..."

"Oh then there's J, our leader! She's a totally awesome boss...except when she's mad, or disappointed, or calling me a disappointment. J can be pretty mean but she just really wants me and everyone to be at our best."

"Sounds like a bully to me."

"NO, J's just..." N struggled to think of the right word, "...she takes our job really seriously. She's the one who recruited Dror actually."

Uzi feigned a happy expression, "Oh joy, she's to blame for the Worker Drone who wants to kill other Worker Drones. What a great person. Then again, what else can I expect from people designed to kill for no good reason." 

N piped up, "Oh we do have a reason. J says the Worker Drones on this planet are considered corrupt AI and want to turn against humans. That we kinda need to drink your oil or else we'll overheat and die. Bit of a biggie there."

Uzi sputtered, finally showing more emotion again, "Wha-We wouldn't want to kill all humans if THEY DIDN'T SEND MURDER BOTS FIRST! Also they really designed you to kill or be killed? That's sick."

"I mean," N gave it a little thought before he answered, "Yeah honestly, humans...haven't really seemed so cool lately. Don't tell J but I've been having some doubts about this whole 'destroy all Workers' thing. You guys honestly don't seem so bad once we get to know you. But a job's a job."

"Oh yeah, great job." Uzi stood up on a chair to meet N's eye level, "You do realize what's gonna happen the moment you all actually succeed right? The humans are gonna dispose of you, just like they decided to do to us!"

"That..." Before N could even think of a counterargument, he thought back on some of the strange dreams he's had lately. The ones filled with angry humans and damaged butler and maid drones. "...That's not what J thinks, or any other Disassembly Drone for that matter."

Uzi gave him a look, "What do you think?"

N looked away, "It doesn't really matter what I think."

"Yes it does," Uzi pressed, "Everyone I know thinks it's stupid to fight against you guys and yet look at me, debating ethics with a Mur-...Disassembly Drone. Stand up for what you think."

At her words, N couldn't help but feel a little more confident. "I think it's weird how vague everything is. I don't like violence so I honestly just wish we could all be friends. Then maybe we could convince the company that we can just all be chill here while they go do...whatever humans like to do on their own." He started to fan himself, "Oh man, talking like a rebel is kinda exciting!"

Uzi smirked, "Well you could use some work but it's the right direction. So, I refuse to just sit here and let those friends of yours kill everyone. I'm gonna go stop them, how about you actually take a stand and help me?"

N's eyes widened at her statement but gave it some serious thought. J had drilled into him that the company's orders mean everything, rules are to be obeyed. But as he's thinking, a memory came to mind. 

"Your demotion is set. Even if a new Worker happens to join us like Dror, you'll be beneath them."

Huh. Wouldn't Uzi TECHNICALLY count as a new Worker Drone working with the squad, meaning he's below her in the chain of command?

With that train of thought, N gave a serious nod, "I'll....help. I don't want my friends to get mad at me but if we can convince them to just talk for a bit, maybe we can work something out?"

Uzi shrugged, instead focusing on the now empty slot of her railgun. "Eh, we can take 'em. I just need a way to power this thing again and they'll be no trouble." 

N scratched his chin and smirked, "Leave it to me, Uzi."

At the sound of his fifteen minute alarm blaring, Dror slapped his face to turn it off. He felt a sense of grogginess as his systems booted back up but overall he did feel better than before his nap.

And yet, Dror's eyes widened as he immediately noticed his pockets felt emptier than usual. Rolling out of his bed, he shoved his hand inside and noticed that the energy core he stuffed inside is missing. Glancing up, he noticed his normally shut door was just the slightest bit open ajar. 

"Oh no..."

Panic and chaos filled the bunker, red alarms blared throughout the normally hidden complex as Worker Drones ran in all directions. Khan Doorman tried his best to work through the crowd, heading towards a pile of metal crates and climbing up to the top.

"EVERYONE!" He yelled as loud as he could, managing to catch the surrounding drones' attention. "We need to head to the evacuation routes. Don't worry, there are plenty of doors along the way which will buy us all the time we need. Stick together and we'll all be fine."

Thankfully, his words got through the various Workers heads and they listened. Khan's position as the head of the Worker Defense Force wasn't for nothing (even if it was mainly just for his doors). Members of the WDF took the front and led the scared Workers down the guided paths.

Khan took a deep sigh and pinched his brow, trying his best to not get stressed out. He turned to one of his WDF members standing by, "How did not one but TWO Murder Drones get in here?"

The Worker shook his head, "I'm not fully sure, sir. The only heads up we had was the upper half of one of the front guards warning us. They said that apparently the first Murder Drone just...opened the door, easy as that."

Khan rubbed his chin, "That's impossible. The only way to get Door 1 opened from the outside is with the Master Key, and that's...that's with..." As he came to a grim conclusion, the old drone suddenly lost his balance, stumbling and grabbing a wall for support. 

His subordinate grew concerned, "Khan, are you okay!?"

"Y-Yes. I'm fine," Khan managed to spit out, still leaning against the wall. "Go on ahead with the others, I'll be with you shortly." 

The Worker, while still worried for his leader, nodded and ran to join the crowd. Being left alone, Khan punched the wall with a resounding echo. He breathed heavily, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to calm down. Finally with a deep exhale, Khan pushed away and started slowly walking after the others.

He paused and turned his head behind him, "Uzi...No, she's fine. She's a strong girl, I'm sure she'll make a big return and go back to calling me a coward. Heh, that's my Uzi." Khan began his slow trek deeper into the bunker, "I'm sorry, Nori..." 

V hummed to herself as she walked through the red-lit halls, carrying a severed Worker head in her arm. This has been the most fun she's had in quite a long time, just an almost constant supply of prey to be all sorts of creative with. Now perhaps if N were here to share the joy-

Nope. Stop that.

She shook her head lightly and took a deep swig of her oil-filled snack. Just a delicious meal to distract her intrusive thoughts. V's just saying that because carnage is more fun with an audience....right?

A distraction for her (thankfully) came when she heard the sound of a dropped object echo down the narrow hallway. V took to it immediately, throwing aside her food and charging straight down the corridor, bursting through a closed door. 

"блять!" 

Standing in front of V are a pair of Worker Drones, a male and female pair. The man looked rather average for a Worker, bright white colored LEDs and heavy winter attire. The woman, however, had an interesting set of red LEDs, helping the insanity of her glare. Also a bit funny that V would have an encounter with two purple-haired female Worker Drones in one day. Perhaps they're related?

V just snickered to herself as she took a step forward, ready for another easy meal. Judging by the female, it seems like she might fight back. That's cute. It's not often any of her targets have the cuts to do more than run and scream. 

Her intuition is proven right when the red-eyed Worker took a defiant step forward and held up her hand. V would scoff at the action if it weren't for the appearance of a red hologram appearing around the Worker's fingers. It resembled a hexagon with three arrowed-tips pointing outward, red just like her LEDs. 

The Disassembly Drone lost all sense of joy as she stared at the symbol. Feeling nothing at first...then anxiety....then fear. Within her vision, the red slowly faded into a pale yellow color and her whole world began to glitch. V can feel herself slipping.

"Cyn, what is this?"

"Oh, hello V. Head tilt. Still awake? Good. It'd be a shame for you to miss this part."

"What are you doing, STOP!"

"Smile. This is our agreement. Not to worry, I won't discard you. This pain will make you perfect, V."

Her head hurts as something invasive entered her. It's not like the usual software updates, it's as if she can feel the claws of a demon pierce her AI and rewrite her code line by line. It's horrifically painful! What's happening!? 

MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP MAKEITSTOP

V gasped as she opened her eyes, finally returning to reality. "What the hell was that?" It felt like a nightmare. Oh God she hoped it was just that. She never felt so...violated. That demented voice sent chills down to her core. 

She held her hand up to wipe her visor only to notice her oil-soaked claws. Looking down, V stares at the corpse of the very Worker Drone who sent her into that panic, nanite acid completely melting her torso. Looking around, she also spied the male drone riddled with bullet holes. 

Looks like that little....episode just sent her on a little murder spree. Better than being actually unconscious or something. In the end, this carnage made V feel nothing inside. Just a hollow killing machine and she was fine with that. That's what she was made for

Nearby, V heard the distant sounds of screams and violence. Seems like J finally caught up so it'd be better to reconvene. She left the living space, the bodies uneaten and oil still leaking out of them. V was left unaware as a teenage Worker Drone peaked out of a cabinet, traumatized from what she had witnessed. 

On that night, Doll's fate had been scarred.

Pumping lead into a few escaping Worker Drones, J gleefully added to her kill count for the night. Her score is well into the 50's and it had barely been ten minutes, there's no way her squad wasn't top this quarter. Those pens are her's for sure!

She had to hand it to that purple thing, this was a boon worthy of her life. Though the circumstances involving another "loyal" Worker Drone are suspicious. If it were V or N claiming this then J wouldn't even consider letting the walking toaster still function but because it was Dror...Well he's a valuable subordinate, his judgement can be trusted. 

And with all of these surplus kills, she thinks they all can afford a little extra free time to themselves. Maybe she and Dror can just...do some joint team bonding and take a walk through the city...alone...under a beautiful night sky.

"Am I interrupting something?"

J froze as she heard V's voice behind, resisting the urge to visibly be surprised. She hid a yelp behind coughing into her hand and turning around, "Whatever do you mean, V?"

V raised an eyebrow, having just seen J happily muttering to herself and had her tail uncharacteristically wagging. "...Nothing. So do we have a plan or just indiscriminate carnage."

Putting on her more business professional persona, J gestured to the ceiling lights, "Judging by the state of the environment, it seems like they have an emergency alarm in place. Red lights tend to be a sign of danger in many facilities so reasonably these walking snackpacks have that too. We just have to figure out what exactly they do and pick them off."

V shrugged, "Whatever. I'll just follow your lead, I guess."

"Hold it right there!'

Both Disassembly Drones turned around to see two familiar figures standing across from them, their third Disassembler and that young Worker Drone. Annoyingly enough, it seems the edgy teen had rummaged through J's things since she's twirling a JCJenson-brand pen in her hand. Little thief.

J raised an eyebrow, "N? Lucy?"

"UZI!"

"Uzi, apologies. And what do we owe the pleasure of your sudden appearance," J's eyes narrowed, "And if you're here, where's Dror?"

Uzi waved her hand, "Oh, by the time we're all done, I'm sure you won't need to worry about him anymore." One good blast of her railgun would probably make J a distant bossy memory anyway, hehe.

At that response, J felt a little unnerved, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nevermind," Uzi blew her off, "N?"

The male Disassembly Drone nodded and nervously turned to look at his squadmates, "Hey girls. So I assume you've had fun with all the....murder and stuff?"

V replied, "We have, yeah? What, wanna join?"

N gave a nervous laugh, "Haha, no actually. I'm, uh, more here to maybe do the opposite?" J and V glanced at each confused as N continued. "So me and Uzi have been chatting a bit and, well, have we ever thought about what exactly will happen when we complete the mission? When all of the Worker Drones are gone?"

J smirked, flicking a ponytail behind her head, "Of course. Recognition from the company, perhaps a promotion for obviously being the best squad on the entire planet and getting prepped for whatever our next long term assignment is."

V hummed, "Hopefully on a planet that isn't a toxic wasteland 24/7, that'd be nice."

"Don't be picky, V."

"That's great, I've thought about that too," N interrupted, "But what if none of that actually happens."

This time, V looked annoyed, "Why waste time on dumb hypotheticals like that?"

Uzi sneered, "Cause it might be true, duh?" 

"Uzi might be right," N stepped forward, "The moment Worker Drones could be seen as rebellious, they sent us to wipe them out without a second thought. What if they do the same to us? I just think the company doesn't actually love robots, y'know?"

"That's..." V started but couldn't finish. She really never tried to put much thought into the whole murder mission so the fact N even made a little sense was worrying. 

J, on the other hand, grew angry, "This is starting to sound like treason, N. I put up with a lot from you but questioning JCJenson is the gravest error you've ever made. Stop. Now." 

N refused to budge, "But even Dror has his doubts! We talked once a while back and even he thinks that the company would throw him away without a second thought. He's a Worker who works with us and yet that could mean nothing." Of course, Dror himself actually welcomed that fate and didn't think of JCJenson in any negative light but N didn't think that'd help his argument. 

"Dror? He..." J faltered, "...He actually thinks that way too?" She gritted her teeth, "It doesn't matter N! We are Disassembly Drones, this is our purpose! If there's an issue we can deal with things ourselves AFTER we finish our mission. You're sticking your neck out for what? A bunch of useless toasters!?" 

"He's trying to do you a favor, pigtails!" Uzi shot back, "You don't really have a choice because you're not gonna finish your dumb murder mission anyway. Us Worker Drones aren't gonna take this crap from you anymore, we've spent enough time cowering beneath you and tonight's the night we start rising against you! So just give it up now!" 

This was a bigass bluff. Uzi knew for a FACT she's the only Worker Drone on the planet who thinks they have a chance of fighting back the Murder Drones. And even then, she knows her railgun and N by her side are the best chance she's got. But she figured if she can make the Worker Drones seem like a united front, maybe that'd be intimidating enough. 

What Uzi failed to realize though was how her choice of words would affect J, who had noticeably become wide-eyed and took a step back, almost losing her balance.

Beside her, even V was put off, "Oi, boss? You don't seriously believe that, right?" Her words fell on deaf ears as within her own mind, J found her thoughts racing erratically.

"US worker Drones?  Dror thinking negatively about JCJenson? This....This doesn't seem right. Did this brat manage to deceive Dror in some way?.....No, N brought up a conversation he seemed to already have had before tonight. And that fact that both of them are here and Dror isn't...did he just let them over here to argue without issue? He defended this little freedom fighter, who had attacked and injured N only to recruit him later? Had he been hiding this negative stigma against the company behind false admiration? Has...No...."

All this lead to a conclusion that broke J, making her feel a simultaneous mixture of rage and despair like none she's experienced before. 

"Has Dror been deceiving us from the start? Deceiving ME?"

Her visor rebooted, sensing some form of mental break incoming. Once completed, J sent a cold glare at N and Uzi, restraining herself from lashing out in an attempt to maintain control over herself. It seemed like Uzi had grown tired of waiting for a response as she tossed the pen she stole right at J, aiming straight for one of the bulbs on her head.

J grabbed the pen right out of the air, not paying it any mind as she crushes it. While Uzi simply looked disappointed to see her shot fail to go through, N and V stared in shock. J, their almost cult-like JCJenson obsessed leader, just destroyed an official JCJenson product without a second thought.

She turned to her fellow female Disassembler with a dark look in her eyes, "V, kill them."

V looked taken aback, "What? J, I know N is annoying and all, especially right now, but-..."

"That's an order." J coldly remarked, turning her glare towards what seemed to be her sole loyal squad member left. "Are you betraying me too?"

The female Disassembler flinched, "What? No, I-..."

"Then kill them. Or maybe I have to finish you first and then them?"

V swallowed some saliva, unsure how to compose herself in the face of this newly enraged J. She'd been there for J's usual outbursts, like an agitated snake. She'd feel disgruntled and angrily lash out at something either verbally or physically. If she tried to hide it, it was more attached to her wannabe business manager attitude with more bark to it than bite. This cold rage cut into V's being, daring her to disobey or be punished.

Steeling her nerves, V just nodded and pulled out her claws.

N and Uzi, while nervous from the sudden shift in mood, got ready. The sole male drone called out, "V, please. We don't have to fight." 

V forced a glare, "Just shut up and fight." And so she leaped forward, propelled by her wings and tackled N. While he managed to pull out his swords to block being skewered, he was swept off his feet and pushed through a wall into a neighboring corridor.

"N!" Uzi called out, she shot a quick glare at J before running after the clashing Disassembly Drones.

J stayed motionless, staring blankly at the hole in the wall. Her mind is wrapped around only one person, trying to rationalize this whiplash of emotions warring inside of her. She stayed there for minutes until footsteps echoed throughout the hallway. She slowly turned her head to find the source.

There Dror stood, staring right at her. "J!" 

V landed a kick on N's torso, causing him to flinch and jump back. He extended his wings out, shielding himself from being bisected by V's claws and then pushed her back with a wing flap. Her back slammed into one of the metal walls, leaving an imprint. 

Uzi, taking the opportunity, raised her railgun and started to charge it up with the sinister green glow. Her reticle locked on to V and the Worker almost pulled the trigger if it weren't for N jumping in front of.

"Wait Uzi!"

"N!?" Uzi growled, "What are you doing, she's wide open!'

"I don't want V to die though!

"SHE'S TRYING TO KILL US!"

V shook the cobwebs out of her head, flinching lightly as her head pounded from impacting the wall. Through her vision though, she spotted the unlikely duo arguing amongst themselves. Better still, N had his back turned to her. So, with some reservation, she pulled out a laser gun and aimed straight at N then she fired...

....A floating bundle of pink hearts in place of a death laser. 

V's eyes widened while her visor became practically covered in a yellow blush. "Wha-What!" She felt something tighten in her core, pleasant and uncomfortable at the same time. What the hell was that!? She glanced up and, thank god, N was too busy arguing with Uzi to notice whatever freak malfunction that was. 

She growled and switched to firing rockets, almost expecting them to fire confetti but thankfully not. Both Uzi and N rapidly dodged around the flying missiles while V, still yellow-faced, tried not to think about what just happened.

Dror had been fully exhausted by the time he ran all the way to the elusive bunker, following Uzi's footsteps. Despite the enhancements injecting himself with Disassembly Drone nanites gave his body, it was still a long LONG run. Now that he actually made it to the once-locked away shelter, he moved cautiously inside. The lack of speed was less due to genuine hesitation and more just a means to give himself time to rest.

While it took a good few minutes of walking and getting lost in this maze of a living space, Dror simply followed the trail of bodies. He muttered to himself, "How do you even navigate a place like this? There's like no maps or anything, no landmarks. I need some kind of GPS if I'm gonna find J or V first."  Echoing throughout the underground complex was a loud banging sound, like metal being shredded from blunt impact. "GPS signal located, I guess."

He sprinted in the direction of the sound, expending what little rest he had until he finally found someone familiar. 

"J!" Dror smiled at his boss standing there. He approached closer, unaware of J giving him a cold side eye. "Man, I'm glad I found you. You have to listen-UGH!"

In a quick blur of movement, J thrust a hand out and wrapped it tightly around Dror's small neck. She lifted him with a glare and slammed him into a wall. "Listen to you? For what, more lies?" 

Dror was barely able to stutter, "W-What?"

She growled, baring her teeth, "I'm ashamed to have been so fooled. Too bad for you, that little purple 'hero' couldn't resist giving out a big speech about you piles of sentient scrap uniting against the company. Even N was able to take note of the cracks in your facade, even helped spur that traitor to act against me."

The Worker Drone had to let that sink in.

"Uzi and N did WHAT!? They convinced J I'm with them!? How dare they!?"

As much as Dror wanted to plead his innocence, J's grip just grew painfully tighter as she grew angrier. "I guess it was just a stupid fantasy to think a Worker Drone could know better. Could actually be someone I can rely on." The leader's breathing grew more ragged as her grip became shaky. If Dror's vision wasn't blacking out, he'd notice small tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "And I...I..."

She lowered her head, hiding her eyes behind her bangs, and just growled. J raised her other hand and switched it into a sword, preparing to stab it into Dror's head just as he became unconscious from the pressure of her grip. J knew she had to do it, traitors had to be executed. So why couldn't she lower her damn arm already!? 

Looking back up, J glared at Dror's face and glanced up at his JCJenson hat. It's the very thing that first grabbed her attention about him. Her breathing continued to grow more uncontrollable and now her entire body was shaking. Until finally...

"AHHH!"

With an angered scream, J just tossed Dror to the side. His body thudded against the ground but it wasn't nearly hard enough to do any harm. She can't hurt him, no matter what her mandates tell her to do. 

Dror's a traitor but J loves him too much. She can't do it.

She stares at his unconscious body, mind racing through mental gymnastics for some way to justify this choice. Perhaps he can just be a prisoner? She could actually treat him like a pet project, perhaps teach a rebellious Worker Drone the joy of working for the company?  

It's flimsy but...she'll hold on to it. JCJenson be damned, she refuses to let Dror die. So she turned to the hole V and N made then headed on through to join the fight.  

It didn't take long for Dror's systems to revive him, asphyxiation wasn't much of an issue for drones as much as just the raw strength of an enraged Disassembly Drone. Perhaps it might've taken longer if it weren't for someone shaking him away....or rather, lightly nudging his body with their foot. 

He groaned as he awoke, "Ugh, what...?" Looking up, instead of the J glaring into him, Dror is met with a pair of red eyes staring down at him. They belong to a teenage female Worker Drone with long purple hair and a cheerleader uniform. Unbeknownst to Dror, he was found on the ground by Doll. "...Oh great, another kid."

While Doll's eyes slightly narrowed at how surprisingly deep this small Worker Drone's voice is, she couldn't bring it in her to reply in any sort of way. Physically or verbally, she has too much on her mind right now...

Dror paid her just as little mind, instead thinking about J. He had never seen her so angry and so...sad? Did the thought of being against her really affect that much? No, he refused to leave her like that. He's gonna make this right.

"Those two..." Dror gritted his teeth and curled his hands into tight fists. N and Uzi...they'll pay for making J cry like that. 

It seems like a reunion didn't have to wait long, as he heard the sounds of mechanized melee close by. So he quickly shot up and ran off, straight into the hole in the wall. That just leaves Doll standing alone, staring after him. 

It didn't take Dror long to rush over, just running through several hallways to follow carnage. At this point it seems like the only landmarks this bunker even has is destruction and oilshed. But eventually he found them, two Disassembly Drones vs a traitor and a young Worker Drone. 

At first thought, Dror had complete confidence the female half of his squad would win but seeing the actual battle, something felt...off.

He knew in comparison to the others, N is at a massive disadvantage and yet he's holding his own against V of all people. She's on the attack but no matter what she does, N is able to evade and block whatever she hits him with. While Dror hadn't seen much in terms of Disassembler vs Disassembler sparring matches but he had seen V perform much better than this in the past. What's wrong with her?

Even worse was J, who Dror could tell was acting unnatural as she engaged Uzi. Gone was her imposing demeanor, the kind where she was assured that things would go her way or break down trying to stop her. Her stance is sloppy, leaving her body swaying while she resorts to purely using long range fire. Her arm lazily hangs in the air as she half-heartedly aimed at Uzi, who was forced to dodge around. She's just an inexperienced kid after all, the only thing in her possession being her impractical cannon of a gun which she can't even find the time to aim.

As bad as she seemed on the outside, J's mind was in chaos. Too much is happening at once, too much she needs to process but can't under the circumstances. Her seemingly devoted Worker is a traitor but she also is a traitor herself for failing to dispose of him. For REFUSING to dispose of him. Her emotions and logical mind are at total odds while she makes meager attempts to kill the annoyingly evasive pest in her way. 

Once her machine gun ran out of ammo, she decided to switch to explosive means and fired three rockets. Uzi managed to dodge her way out of being hit by the first two, but her eyes widened as the third aimed straight for her. 

N came in for the save, kicking back the rocket straight at J and exploding right in front of her. Seeing his former boss knocked back, N smiled back at Uzi, "Got your back bud-YIKES!" V once again came for his neck with her swords, separating the unlikely duo again while Uzi breathes a sigh of relief. 

With her back on the ground, J growled, "THAT'S IT!" Swiftly jumping up, she pulled out the special weapon all Disassembly Drone squad leaders shared, the EMP generator. It sparked dangerously as J viciously laughed, the kind that is more fueled by anger rather than amusement. From the sidelines, Dror gulped and dove for cover as J unleashed the blast.

An electric shockwave bathed the narrow area, hitting all three of the other drones and turning off the red alarm lights. Uzi went down first, errors displaying on her visor as her body shut down. Then came V, who had been preparing to intercept an approaching N and she too lost consciousness. N had it the worst, being midair and crashing straight into a wall. 

J panted heavily as her weapon cooled down, stumbling slightly from exhaustion. With heavy steps, she approached the paralyzed Uzi. Yellow eyes glared, promising horrible things as thoughts of everything Uzi spoke about repeated in J's mind, about Worker Drone rebellion. With a snarl, J stamped her pinpointed foot on Uzi's chest, perhaps a tad harder than intended.

She needs to calm down, emulate some level of control. Thankfully for moments like these, she's saved various kinds of speeches to let her mind relax for a moment. 

"PLAYING:// BestMonologueEver.mp3"

"You've got a lot of guts for a barely sentient toaster. I've had prey fight back before, but your [insert appropriate adjective - "edgy"] spirit is just so..." J's automated speech paused as pain rushed through her systems, looking down to see her own tail impaling her leg. "Painful?"

It seems that in her anger, slamming down on Uzi just jumpstarted her system to reboot faster. Making J's attempt to calm herself nothing more than an opening to take advantage of.

"Gah! Fourth quarter profits! Mother of company leadership retreats!"

Uzi pushed the pained J to the ground, reversing their positions as she stepped on the Disassembly Drone's torso, only in this instance the Worker Drone had a railgun pointed right at J's head. With her enemy completely helpless beneath her, Uzi felt something strange in the back of her head. Within her feelings of pride at being this close to winning, a desire festered. Malevolent intentions, the spread of death.

For the briefest of moments, one of Uzi's purple eyes glitched into an X-shape as she grinned. J's own eyes widened in horror as the massive gun charged with green energy. There was nothing she could do, she felt so...useless. 

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, approaching rapidly before Dror suddenly appeared and grabbed at the muzzle of the gun. "GET OFF OF HER!"

Uzi, regaining her sense of self, tried to shake him off, "Hands off my gun!"

Both Worker Drones wrestled with it for a few seconds before the railgun blasted a familiar intense blast, overwhelming everything in a green light and heat. As J's blinded, the last thing she heard is Dror screaming out in pain.

J doesn't know how long it's been when she wakes back up, disoriented but unharmed. Moonlight has flooded the hallway, courtesy of a large hole in the ceiling caused by that mini-weapon of mass destruction. She starts to get up with a groan, noting some of the others slowly doing the same. N seemed to have awoken first and took the opportunity to wrap the unconscious V in her own tail. Just great, as if J needed another useless teammate. 

But as she looks around, her eyes locked onto the one body not moving. Dror, only the lower part of his body visible within a smoke cloud. She can see most of his torso exposed with his jacket almost burnt to a crisp. From what she can see on his body, she took note the normally orange LEDS on his hands are blackened. 

"D-Dror?" J started to hyperventilate. A close proximity to that blast, evident damage, LEDs off, and his pained scream....that means.... "No....nonono! You can't....not like this!" Tears started to fall from her eyes as she's frozen in place, too scared to check any closer to Dror's body. Too scared to see what's left of him. As she began to feel a panic attack set in, her eyes darted around at her enemies, too preoccupied with themselves to notice she's even awake. 

J did the only thing her instincts drove her to do, she pulled out her wings and took off through the open hole. Leaving behind everything she ever cared about before as she flew into the dark sky.

Unaware, Uzi stumbled to her feet. "Ugh...what the hell happened?" Rubbing her visor, she suddenly remembered the situation. Her head quickly swiveled as she tried and failed to spot J, instead distracted upon seeing N approach her with a trapped V left sitting curled up. "Oh, you got her."

N shook his head with a small smile, "It's more like J got both of us, luckily I woke up first so V's taken care of." He turned his attention to the sky. "J's gone. I saw her just as she took off so I think it's safe to say we won."

Uzi sighed and gave a tired thumbs up, "That's score 1 for Worker Drones compared to.....You know what, let's keep count."

They're conversation took a pause as they heard the sound of approaching voices and footsteps, drawing their attention. As a group of Worker Drones turned the corner, one drone at the front gasped and took off into a sprint towards them.

"UZI!"

"Dad? UMF!" Uzi found herself quickly enveloped in the tight embrace of her father, Khan Doorman. With her face shoved into his chest, her protests are muffled while the old drone hugs her with a smile. 

When he finally releases her, Khan turns to the other Worker Drones, "See, I told you my daughter's alive!" While they gave a small clap, he turned back to Uzi and put his hands on her shoulder. "When I heard that the Murder Drones got in, I thought..." He paused, instead hurriedly saying, "Well, I expected you to at least survive. Wouldn't have wanted all of that training for nothing, and you even managed to take...them..." 

Khan's eyes turned wide as he suddenly noticed N awkwardly standing there. He waved, "Um, hi Mr. Uzi's dad."

"Hello?"

Uzi smirked and gave a playful elbow nudge to N, "Don't worry dad, this is a friendly Murder Drone. He helped me out."

Khan raised a finger and opened his mouth, taking a moment to think of an argument but just shrugged, "Well I'll take your word for it. I'm just glad you're okay Uzi."

Seeing her father be so honest, Uzi blushed and turned her head in embarrassment, "Yeah, sure. whatever." Turning her back to him, she allowed herself a small smile.

With all of the excitement, everyone failed to notice the body of a small Worker Drone having disappeared.

Pain. So much burning pain.

Dror hurriedly stumbled out of the entrance of the bunker, feeling a wave of cold air wash over him. The chilly air did little to lessen the searing heat he can feel scorching the side of his face. He needs it to stop. 

As soon as he can, Dror shoves his face into a pile of snow. He silently screams as the pain grew even more intense at first, the heated metal on his head melting some of the snow before finally starting to cool down. He stayed there for minutes, trying to stop himself from sobbing from experiencing so much pain. Instead he just kept heavily gasping. 

He had been so close to death when the railgun fired, the edge of the beam only briefly grazed the side of his face but it was the worst thing he ever experienced. Even now the pain still lingered while the left side of his vision felt hindered. Now his focus on that side is hazier and the color is lost.

Damn it, his hat got burned in the blast too!

When Dror awoke, the pain came in full force but he stayed silent as he noticed how bad things had gotten. V captured, N and Uzi unharmed, J gone. So he endured the pain as best as he could and silently got away. 

So now Dror headed to the only place he could go, back to base. With each step back home, the pain lessened little by little while rage grew more and more. Dror's anger kept him motivated, he refused to falter until he managed to get all the way back to the spire. 

Once he entered back into his hut, the first thing Dror did was collapse into a chair and just sit silently. How did everything go so wrong so fast? What happens now? 

Dror angrily tapped a finger on the table. He growled, "Those two..." Who woulda thought a random teenager and someone he thought to be a close friend would ruin his newfound peace. He wanted so desperately to do something to pay them back...but he can't. Not without help, not without J. He stopped his tapping, exhaling and pinching his visor. "Oh god, J..." 

Dror wanted to make everything up to her. He NEEDED to. This was all his fault for letting Uzi live, for prioritizing a stupid gun. He had to explain and apologize for everything. He can't lose her, he didn't want to be alone again! 

"That settles that then." Dror mumbled to himself. His first priority is going to be finding J, nothing else matters until he does that first. If she's not back here, she must be looking for a new base to settle without any squad members left by her side. At least, until Dror can prove she still has his loyalty.

Glancing to the side, Dror spotted his mirror. The reflection glared back at him, drawing Dror's attention to his new....quirk. With a shout, Dror grabbed his Worker Module from on the table and threw it at the mirror, shattering and destroying his prized device into pieces. 

Trying to calm himself down, Dror looked over at his unfinished project. His key to moving forward.

J kept flying for miles, blinking back tears. How could so much wrong have happened so quickly? One moment it's a night of triumph, the next she loses everyone that mattered. What unnerves her most of all, why does this despair feel so familiar to her? 

Did she deserve to have this happen? To be betrayed? To be so unloved despite everything she's done?

Suddenly, J cried out in pain as something hit one of her wings. The blind-sighted attack sent her spiraling through the air and crashing into the hard ground. Painfully, she got back to her feet. "What now!?"

Looking at her injured wing, her eyes widen as she notices a metal arrow pierced right into it. 

"Well well..."

Hearing a familiar masculine voice, J glares behind her to see a familiar pair. The Disassembly Drones D and M smirked at her, the latter having her crossbow aimed right at her.

D laughed, "Who's invading who's territory now?"

N struggled to keep V steady in his arms as she struggled in his grip, making it hard to fly straight between keeping her in check and the added weight of Uzi on her back. While N had been surprisingly invited to stick around with the Worker Drones inside of the bunker, both he and Uzi knew it'd be best if V were kept somewhere else. So where better than in their usual base? 

Landing right in the middle of the main area of the spire, Uzi hopped off N's back. "You know, besides all the gross bodies around, this does make for a killer base of operations. Why don't we just live here for a bit?"

V scoffed, having accepted her situation, "If I'm gonna be a prisoner, I'd rather be in solitary confinement than put up with you. OW!" Uzi threw a snowball at her head.

N chuckled, a bit uncomfortable with having his crush captive but knowing there isn't many other options. "While I don't mind this place, I kinda wanted to know what it'd be like to live with Worker Drones, you know? It sounds fun."

Uzi rolled her eyes, "Not in my eyes but whatever. You think that crazy Worker Drone of yours snuck back here?"

With a frown, N said, "Uzi, his name is Dror. He's my friend so please don't name call him."

"No promises." Peering around, she noticed footprints in the snow, trailing around the area in between the landing pod and the shed. "Look at that, he IS here."

N smiled, "Oh good. I was hoping we could take this out since we already did the fighting and all." He looked at the foot imprints and noticed they ended at Dror's small building.  So N headed over and knocked on the door, "Hey Dror, are you in there?"

Faintly from inside, N could hear something that resembled...a growl? He opened the door and spied some of Dror's red hair working on something in the back corner. The Worker's back is turned to him.

"...Leave N." 

N felt put off. He already expected Dror to be upset with him but he didn't expect the mood to feel this tense. "I just want to talk, Dror. I'm sorry for what happened but I honestly don't think that following the company any more is a good idea." He's met with silence as Dror continues to tinker away, so he continues. "You've been trying to help me be more confident so I stood up for what I think is right. I know it might be hard to understand but maybe if you come around, together we can get J to come around too. Then we can all-"

"Do you ever shut up!" 

N flinched and Uzi poked her head from behind him at the sudden shout. Dror tilted his head towards them, glaring coldly. "I don't know if you noticed, I'm busy. Piss off." When Dror turned back, he pulled out a screwdriver and started messing with one of his hands. 

Uzi felt ticked, "I see you're a sore loser. Humans are the bad guys you know? They sent death robots to kill our entire population, doesn't that seem messed up to you?"

Dror ignored her, popping his right hand cleanly off and then put on a brand new hand, starting to attach that into place before switching to the other hand.

"Whatever, you have a murder fetish or something. At this point, I guess you can just sit on the sidelines as we take back the planet. Now that we proved we can beat back some Murder Drones, it's only a matter of time until we beat them all and then take the fight to the humans."

As he finished putting the new hands on, testing out the flexibility of the fingers, Dror started to laugh to himself. "Oh wow, that's some hero complex you have there. You really are just an arrogant brat."

Uzi glared, "What was that?"

"Exactly like I said," Dror stood up from his seat. "You didn't win anything. I don't know the specifics but J and V were off their game in that fight. If they were at their best, you'd be nothing but a memory. A bunch of weak Worker Drones and a good for nothing Disassembly Drone can't change the world." 

N, feeling rare annoyance, took a step forward, "There's no need to be so harsh, Dror."

"Is that right!?" Dror turned around, letting N and Uzi see his face. It's dark inside of the single room but both of them instantly recoiled at seeing Dror's visor. The left side of his visor had partially melted, leaving black smudged marks on part of his white mouth area. More noticeably, the eye on that side had dimmed into a white color. "Sorry if I don't feel charitable to the people who almost caused my face to melt!" 

"Oh man, Dror I'm so sorry!" N took a step back, unaware Dror had even gotten hurt let alone...THIS. 

"You don't get to be sorry." Dror started stepping forward, causing both to step backwards outside. From her trapped position, even V's eyes widened at the state of Dror's injury.

 Stepping into the light revealed Dror in a whole new outfit, a replacement for what Uzi's railgun had burned. Now the Worker Drone closely resembled the attire of the Disassembly Drones, having taken some extra stored clothes left inside of the landing pod. His clothes now consisted of a yellow button up shirt and black tie taken from J under a long black coat taken from N. A replacement JCJenson hat is on his head, one he had seen from J's collection of company items. Lastly is the yellow armband, the same one J had given him before.

Worthy of note is Dror's newly attached hands, resembling the standard drone set except the centerpiece being gray in color and the LED being an orange circle instead of the usual arrow shape.

Dror glared at Uzi, "So what is it really? Staying safe in a nice warm bunker too good for you? Let me guess, you wanted to be special. To stand out from the crowd and make a name for yourself by 'saving the world' or some garbage. Finally earn daddy's love and respect, instead of doors. Hope that works out for you." In his brief time looking for J and V in the bunker, he had noticed the various posters of Khan Doorman. How a drone with such a door fetish found love and made a family is beyond his understanding. 

Uzi sputtered, unable to think of anything to respond with between the sudden tear down of her character. She weakly shot back, "Bite me..." 

"As for you," Dror turned his attention to N, "How dare you. Genuinely, how dare you come here and pretend we can just work things out and be pals again after ALL OF THIS. I guess friendship and loyalty mean nothing in the face of an inspiring hero speech, huh? Don't ever talk to me again."

N looked down, "I'm sorry."

Dror clicked his teeth, "Whatever, I'm through with you." He walked back inside and grabbed a large duffle bag packed with everything Dror felt he needed. In particular, a certain set of energy cores that will no longer left unattended Stepping past them, he started heading for the exit. 

He stopped and turned back to them. "As of now, I'm assuming leadership of J Squad. With one drone a traitor, the other captured and our leader MIA, that leaves control to me. As much as it pains me, I can't stop you from being in this base. So stay cozy while you can until I find J and return control to her. After that point we'll be back and you lot stay out of our way, that's all I can promise." He glanced over at V, who's raising an eyebrow at him and gestured to herself with her limited movement. "While I can attempt to free V, I honestly doubt she'll just accept my command. In all honesty I'm sure she'll just kill me while she has the chance with J gone. She's made her lack of respect with me clear already."

V, to some of her own surprise, felt offended. She has had fun mocking Dror and threatening him over the past year but...she actually started to like having him around despite herself. It makes sense for him to not like her but to be abandoned...

Dror grunted, having one more thing to say, "Uzi, N. This is going to be your only warning. Take this small victory and leave it at that. Maybe J and I can just take V back and leave that stupid bunker alone if you just stay in your little corner. If you dare try to mess with me or her one more time..."

Dror held up one of his new hands and activated the primary mechanism, his fingers pulled into the palm and out jutted out a set of sharp claws.

"I'll rip you apart with my bare hands."

(Art by  @sakaruchibi12 )

Doll slowly walked towards the exit of the bunker, breathing in the night air. Internally, she grieved. What had been a normal day had become the day she watched her parents murdered right in front of her. She didn't know if her calmness was because of shock or just an inability to express her emotions. Either way, that's surprisingly not what has her attention.

With a flick of her hand, a red symbol appeared in front of her. She had seen it once before, used by her now deceased mother. Doll had followed that weird red-haired Worker towards the battle earlier, coming in just in time to witness him running towards Uzi wielding that failed assignment of a gun. 

She had reached out a hand to stop him, confused at his spur into the action and somewhere in that moment, something had awakened inside of Doll. It had come out of her being and latched onto the male Worker, pulling him back just as that weapon fired. 

This power...feels bizarre. Where did it come from? Why now?

"Ah, there you are."

Glancing up, Doll's eyes widened as a new Worker Drone was suddenly standing in front of the entrance. An adult Worker with orange hair, sandy pink eyes, and an outfit that resembled a robe. They stood there, smiling at her. 

"I thought I felt a new pull. You wouldn't happen to know a Worker named Yeva, would you? You resemble her greatly." They spoke with a smooth and deep masculine voice. 

Doll glared, "She's my mother. Dead." 

The stranger frowned and shook their head, "Shame. She was a great drone, great and powerful."

"You know about..." Doll gestured to the symbol in her hand. 

They nodded, their smile returning, "I do. How about we get acquainted, my name is Cyrus."

Chapter Text

So I did promise I would officially reveal art for the next season of On-Brand Loyalty here but instead that will serve as the first post for "On-Brand Loyalty: New Management". I figured it'd be good to have that so that the story can be followed right away even if the first chapter of that isn't ready yet.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65790262/chapters/169442962

With that in mind, my plan for New Management and On-Brand Loyalty going forward will be different from the Prelude Saga. While this story is initially a "slice of life" type story, mostly spaced between month-long time skips at a time to establish Dror's growing relationship with the cast of characters and building up some OCs, New Management will feature a much more consistent story format. I do have a short timeskip planned at some point but for the most part every chapter will be consecutive as a genuine story. It will also grow to be darker and more story focused in general compared to the more casual approach to Prelude.

Along with this is the nature of the canon episodes of Murder Drones. All episodes will be adapted in some way with the only exception being Episode 2, for hopefully obvious reasons. Unlike the adaptation of Episode 1 which was a massive chapter, the episode adaptations will instead be treated as multi-chapter arcs to help space them out and not put too much pressure on me for each one. Along with that, there will of course be more room for original storytelling and original arcs. 

As things are currently planned, New Management will last all the way to at least the adaptation of Cabin Fever before we branch into the next saga. And now onto the two announcements:

Q&A Round 3

Just like before, the time is open again to ask me any sort of questions you have on your mind. I figured given the end of this story arc after all this time, it's a good time as any to have one of these again moving into the new story arc. With that mind, of course any question is allowed to be asked but I will not answer every question fully (for the sake of spoilers, of course). These questions will be answered in "On-Brand Loyalty: Off the Clock".

Dror joins a Death Battle

For those who look into Off the Clock, then hopefully you are aware of the story "Murder Drones: DEATH BATTLE" by Zamasu1226 on Wattpad. They are writer who typically takes OCs from Murder Drones stories and pits them against each other in a Death Battle-style format. About a year ago they made the matchup of my own Serial Designation D vs the Uzi from "Mother J".

The time has come again for one of my own characters with New Management Dror vs Canon Uzi. This will not only be a FULL presentation of Dror is now capable of in terms of skill and weapons for New Management but it will also be the only chance to see him against Uzi frim the actual canon story, as she will receive alternative skills and abilities in On-Brand Loyalty in the future.

Please be sure to take it out when it releases!
https://www.wattpad.com/story/365348849-murder-drones-death-battle

And with that, I officially close the Prelude story. Thank you all so much for reading this far and hope to see you when we're under New Management. Check out the Discord below.

https://discord.gg/tuk7DqxdM4